Demon's Night
by D. Vanvliet
Summary: Every choice holds a consequence - or does it? One night a century every demon can have his way, but all fades in the light of dawn. SessKag
1. Default Chapter

Demon's Night

Long, slender legs sheathed in billowing white silk moved with deceptive carelessness over the rough, uneven ground. Half-boots of soft black leather stepped through a maze of small, jagged rocks scattered on the path.

"Wait! Lord Sesshomaru! I can make your heart's wish come true! Will you let me prove it to you?"

Sesshomaru again looked at the lovely piper, Lady Soluo – or at least, what was left of her – with ill-concealed disgust.

She claimed to love him, did she? A mere ningen, noble-woman or no, could not hope to claim a being such as he.

He turned his back on her, another obvious enough dismissal, even without the caustic words that followed.

"Hn." He inclined his head slightly, narrowing his eyes to look through the protection of his lashes as he turned his face to the cold wind. "You are welcome to try."

Sesshomaru heard the woman depart.

She was truly pathetic. Apparently she had taken his sarcasm to heart.

He should have told her not to bother. Nothing she accomplished would ever make him care for her. She was dead, doomed. She had given her soul over to the lesser-demons in the foolish hope that she could gain his love…he almost allowed a smile to escape as he began walking again.

As if he could love anyone other than _her_.

The mere thought of her made his severely controlled emotions rise dangerously to the surface, and anger at his heart's refusal to forget her made him snap his command for Ah-Un, carrying young Rin, to fall in behind him.

"The pretty Lady seemed very sad to me, my Lord," Rin said thoughtfully from her comfortable mount on the two-headed dragon.

Sesshomaru didn't respond, and as usual, the child was wise enough not to speak further.

He ignored Jaken's pleadings to slow down, but not because he was tired of listening to the toad's ranting – this time it was because his mind was too filled with himself for him to bother to pay any attention.

Was he, Sesshomaru, not pathetic, then, as well? Did not his own traitorous emotions mirror the Lady Soluo's feelings for him?

_She_ was a ningen – a special one, unarguably, but still only human. She was weak, despite her obvious strengths. She would grow elderly, and one day she would die. It was inevitable, a sad fact of a human's life.

_And yet…_

The thought that she would wither and eventually pass from his world into the next where he could not so easily follow caused him pain…and the knowledge that he was _allowing_ himself to feel it because of her was enough to enrage him.

He would not have her! He could never have her, yet he persisted in wanting her! If he did succeed in banishing her from his thoughts during the day, she haunted his dreams throughout the nighttime hours! The loss of control was causing him to drown in the wash of unwanted sentiment…it was _maddening -_

Sesshomaru was jarred back into the present by a furious blast of power that came unbidden from his own fingertips. His powerful rush of emotion had generated a mass of lethal energy, and it had built unto the point of exploding without him even being aware of it.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin cried out, her voice high with fear for him.

Sesshomaru barely heard her, as an eerie wind rose around him, picking up the ends of his hair and pelt, signaling that his bestial change was imminent. In an effort to stave off the transformation, he brought his hand up in a movement too fast to see, unleashing the seething power through the violently humming energy of his poison-whip attack.

The assault nearly resulted in an avalanche as the high rock walls of the mountain pass they were traveling through crumbled.

In the dust-clouded aftermath, Sesshomaru finally became aware that he was still cracking his knuckles, glowing poison continuing to well up to drip from the points of his claws. He was seeing his surroundings through a haze of bright red, and he forced himself to become calm. He did not care to frighten Rin further, yet the idea that he had lost control over his power in a way he had not done since he was but a pup only added to his fury.

"My Lord?" he heard his retainer ask meekly between coughs, from beside him.

"Are you alright, Sesshomaru-sama?" Rin echoed, her normally cheery little voice sounding close to tears.

Sesshomaru didn't dare lower his eyes to the toad-demon, or Rin. The mere sight of a weaker creature at this point would only cause his feral instincts to react with the need for a bloody kill.

"Jaken, stay with Rin until I return."

"Yes, my Lord," came the surly reply.

"Jaken."

"Aye, my Lord?"

"If she is not with you when I return, your life shall be forfeit." Sesshomaru tilted his head just slightly, allowing the toad to glimpse the glowing red of his eyes.

"Y-yes, my Lord!" The small demon skittered back, trying to hide behind his staff-of-heads.

Satisfied with the scent of fear reeking in the air, Sesshomaru took to the skies, turning a deaf-ear to Rin's childish pleas asking that he not forget about her. The girl should know by now that he always came back for her.

The moisture in the air was cool and soothing as he moved through the clouds, thinking back on this last confrontation with the female half-demon.

She was a fool. The youkai-infested shell that the Lady Soluo now inhabited would never allow her the happiness and peace she sought, even if he somehow did return her feelings.

In truth, the Lady Soluo had never had a chance.

Before _her_, no one had.

After the dishonorable and untimely death of his father, he'd sworn never to fall prey to his emotions as his sire once had. The late Inu-no-Taisho had once been the fiercest of warriors, feared and respected by allies and foes alike. Nothing had moved him – despite his keen intelligence, he'd been as a mindless beast in his need for power and destruction…and then the bitch who'd whelped his half-breed brother – a woman whose beauty surpassed even the ethereal exquisiteness of Sesshomaru's own mother – had crossed his path.

Their enemies had struck him down within a scant year.

Though he'd taken his pleasure at will, Sesshomaru had never allowed himself to feel anything for a female beyond the most basic desires of lust. If he ever wanted companionship, he need only to cast a seductive gaze toward a female to have her purring and ready at his feet.

Recently, all that had changed. He'd begun feeling a need for something other than the purely physical…but not with just any woman.

_She_ didn't strive for perfection, like youkai females did. She was giving and kind where they were cruel and selfish, warm where they were cold…

Sesshomaru swallowed a curse as he felt his body react violently to his thoughts.

It was pointless to think on her. A sensitive creature such as she would demand that he love her, and he…would not. His heart would not bleed for any woman. He refused to waste any more time chasing her memory like a phantom through his mind…

Besides, any 'love' he could give would be a cold thing indeed.

As he passed near the great ocean, he once again sensed the presence of the Lady Soluo. He perceived the sadness in her half-demonic aura that Rin had spoken of earlier, but he didn't care enough to continue thinking on it.

Anyone who wasn't _her _was of very little interest to him at present.

Sesshomaru stared at the waning sunlight in the red skies before him, and allowed himself to say her name in his mind. He savored the word like a taste on his tongue though he didn't dare give it voice.

_'Where is she now?'_ he found himself wondering as he gazed at the dying blaze on the far horizon. The violent colors of the sky meeting the glittering golden sea made for a magnificent view, but its glory was lost on him.

Was she with InuYasha, that useless half-breed? InuYasha, that crude mutt of an inu-youkai…that mongrel who could not see the brightness of the future right in front of him because he allowed himself to be blinded by the darkness of the past?

_'I defend her as if she were my own,'_ he grimly acknowledged to himself, _'as if she were truly mine. As if she were my – '_

Sesshomaru suddenly clenched the muscles of his jaw, determined to forget her existence. She'd intrigued him with her loyalty to his brother, with her steadfastness in the heat of battle…as she was only a lowly human wench; it was only natural that he be curious about her…

Yet as the lonely night slowly fell, he could not help but hear the echoes of his thoughts.

_'I defend her as if she were my own. As if she were my…Kagome…'_

_To Be Continued in Chapter One, 'Demon's Night'_

_Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha, or any related characters!_

_A/N: This fic is set tentatively during episodes 133-134 (I think) 'The Woman Who Loved Sesshomaru'. This is my first attempt at an InuYasha fanfic, so I'm still kinda' working on the rough edges – Sess being a bit OC, for one – so feedback on this would definitely be helpful with the editing and revisions. Thanks for reading!_

_- D.V._


	2. Chapter 1 Killing Perfection

**Demon's Night – Chapter One**

He was…naked.

Kagome was so embarrassed she could've died, but she just couldn't look away.

Her gaze wandered over his lean, muscular arms, narrow hips, flat, taut belly…finally moving down to his…his…

Kagome's eyes went so wide she was afraid that for a second they might just fall out. H-he…his…_it_ was huge, jutting upward amidst a swirl of dense, fur-like silver down.

In shock, she looked up at his face.

Before, in all her past dreams, she'd never been able to make out his features…

Now she could see him…all of him, and she wished she hadn't been so curious. He was so viciously handsome, so cold and elegant, that he made her feel even more unnerved than she already was.

His was a cruelly beautiful countenance, cool, expressionless, untainted by the savage hunger brightly burning in his eyes, It was such a contrast that she had to look twice to make sure she really was the focus of his attention.

Despite her anxiety, she couldn't help but find his fixed regard exciting. Nothing – absolutely _nothing_ – about him was ordinary. Not his piercing amber-gold eyes, sculpted lips, nor impossibly long, pure silver hair tinged with smoky blue highlights from the light of the full moon. His looks were…unusual, but not unpleasantly so – so far removed from disagreeable as to be on the opposite side of the world, in fact.

He moved, the moonlight catching the foreign markings slashing dagger-like down either side of his cheekbones, and he looked so lethally dangerous in that moment that she actually caught herself cringing away from him. She knew what it was that he wanted. The same thing he wanted every night he'd disturbed her sleep…

"No. No, you can't." Something about this particular dream seemed terribly wrong. It felt far more real than it had previously.

"Yes, I can," the vision responded emotionlessly, and the deep tone of his voice, somehow lyrical even as it was flat, startled her.

That was another thing that was oddly different. He'd never spoken to her before…

Suddenly she remembered why this dream was so very, very wrong.

Kagome gasped.

"Sesshomaru!?"

She shook her head violently in denial.

"No, no, no! No way! I-I can't love _you_! I love…Inu…Yasha."

"I do not ask for love."

The demon lord lowered himself to the bag where she lay, bringing their bodies close together.

The heat of his gaze was incredibly intense. His eyes seemed to be telling her something, something important that lay bare for her to see if only she cared to look more closely…Kagome felt herself swaying towards him, felt herself being pulled away from everything she was familiar with, from her comfort into a something new and altogether terrifying, and she flinched away from him, but he was merciless. His arms gathered her close, pulling her chest against his, and she whimpered helplessly as the heat from his burning heart scorched the tender skin which lay over hers…

Kagome splayed her hands against his smooth chest, attempting to shove him away even as she began to crave the fire of his embrace…and then her fingertips were touching nothing.

Sesshomaru was gone.

Nothing remained but his wild, male scent, and the memory of him imprinted upon her body and mind, his name burned into her heart, marking her as his forever…

_"NO!"_

"Kagome! Wake up! You're dreaming!"

Kagome was more than happy to wake up from her dre – nightmare! Though the odd dream had invaded her sleep for several weeks, now, this time it had been different.

She had seen her demon lover's face, and heard his voice.

_'Sesshomaru..? InuYasha's…brother?!'_

Weak from the strength of the myriad of emotions rushing through her, Kagome buried her face in the down of her sleeping-bad and just…trembled.

"Oh, no. Not _him_. Please not _him_!"

"Kagome?" Sango was watching her curiously.

She made an effort to pull herself together.

"I'm awake, Sango," she whispered, fighting to keep the breathlessness she felt out of her voice.

"Was it the dream again, Kagome?"

The familiarity of Sango's voice was comforting, and Kagome sighed as the worst of the shudders finally stopped.

"Y-yes. But this time…I…I saw his face."

"And did you recognize him?" Sango asked curiously. Her concerned tone turned slightly teasing as it dropped to the merest whisper. "Was it InuYasha?" She winked.

_InuYasha._

_'I wish,'_ she thought to herself fervently, though her cheeks fired with heat at the idea.

For a bare second she replaced him with InuYasha in her dream, and silently gasped at the wave of heat that swept through her abdomen. She had to take a deep breath and shake her head to dispel both the feeling and the wicked image.

If it had been InuYasha, at least she would have known how better to deal with it.

Kagome swallowed in embarrassment, and then rolled over, suddenly. Her eyes darted to the dying embers of the campfire, and then to the dark shadows of the trees…but she couldn't see InuYasha.

Her heart skipped a beat in extreme dismay. There was no need to wonder at where he'd gone to. Still, she couldn't sense _her_ near, but why else would the hanyou have left the campsite?

_Kikyo._

After all this time it still hurt, his 'visits' with her. It should have gotten easier in time, shouldn't it? She should be used to it by now, shouldn't take it so personally…besides, Kikyo had been here first, as she was so fond of pointing out, though maybe not in-so-many words.

But wasn't Kikyo a part of her? A very small part?

Ugh, it was always too confusing to think about!

"Kagome?"

No matter how much she tried to explain things to herself, it still hurt, and she still couldn't make herself understand. It was hopeless…or rather, she was…and Sango was still waiting for an answer about that creepy dream.

"I…it was no one I knew," she partially fibbed, feeling rotten.

It was true in a way. She knew what InuYasha's older brother looked like, and how he sounded when he spoke – but she didn't 'know' him.

_Yet_.

Kagome felt herself sinking again.

How could she have been dreaming about _Sesshomaru_ like that!? It was too weird! He was…well, attractive, an' all, but for one, he'd tried to kill her – her mind conveniently didn't listen to the flaw in her deductive reasoning, that InuYasha himself had once tried to kill her, too - and if that wasn't reason enough, he also hated InuYasha!

Besides that, his ears were weird – they were way too pointy, and they…er…stuck out funny.

Of course, so did InuYasha's, but his were cute…

Kagome sat up, lifting a hand to push her hair behind one shoulder. As she turned her face to the treetops and took a deep breath of the crisp, early morning air, and opened her eyes to the sky as dawn approached. She was so glad that the sun would be up soon, because the slate gray of the sky and the coolness of the air, on top of the grimness of her dream, was really depressing to her.

"Something is going to happen, soon," she suddenly told her friend in a worried voice. "I can feel it."

"A bad premonition? As if your dreams haven't been bad enough for you, now this! What is it, Kagome?" Sango sat up from her resting place against a slumbering Kirara and cast a glance around the forest.

"Could it be something to do with Naraku?"

"I don't know. I don't _think_ so."

_"Oi!__ Pipe down, will ya'? The 'sane' people are tryin' to sleep around here!"_

"_Gyah_!" Kagome flinched at the sudden, grumbling shout from close overhead. She caught her breath and beat back the ridiculous urge to cry, and then blew the breath out in a huff. She dropped back onto her sleeping bag, the long black thickness of her hair pillowing the back of her head as she stared up into the tree branches directly above her.

She didn't see anything at first, but she heard a slight creaking of branches and swishing of leaves. The tree swayed.

She blinked, waiting patiently, and heard a low grunt right before a flash of red and silver dropped from overhead nearly into her lap.

"Sorry, InuYasha," Kagome said, stifling a yawn.

"We didn't mean to wake you up."

The hanyou scowled down on her, his large golden eyes catching and reflecting the firelight, glinting with the mirror-like sheen of a predator's in the near darkness.

Kagome would have been unnerved if she didn't know InuYasha couldn't hurt her.

"Yeah, well, ya' did," he said harshly.

"What the hell were you two blabbin' on about so early, anyway?" His narrowed gaze caught on Kagome, especially, and she gulped as she watched the velvety ears atop his head swivel towards her, and his nose twitch as if he could smell something.

He always made her feel like she was hiding something when he did that…of course, she kinda' was, this time…

Feeling a hot flush envelope her entire body, Kagome was helpless to respond. After all, what could she say?

_'Sorry I woke you up, InuYasha, I was just freaked out about having naughty hentai dreams about your **brother**?!'_

"Oh, we were just talking about _you_, InuYasha," she heard Sango say calmly.

Kagome felt her jaw drop.

InuYasha, who had been studying Kagome intently, and with no little suspicion, jerked his head toward the other woman. His ears perked straight upward in interest. "Yeah? What were you talkin' about me, for?"

Sango was biting her lip as she tried not to laugh.

"Oh, Kagome was just saying how much she – "

" - hates it when you eavesdrop on our conversations!" Kagome blurted, trying to sound annoyed.

InuYasha's dark eyebrows drew together in a fierce frown. He glared at Kagome, making her cringe inwardly, and then shocked her by closing his eyes, tucking his hands into his sleeves, and stomping off into the surrounding forest without uttering a single curse word.

Kagome watched until he was out of sight, and then turned on her friend, who was sitting on the ground with a curious-looking Kirara, shaking her head.

"Sango! What were you _thinking_?" she hissed.

"Kagome, you're never going to be with InuYasha if you don't take some initiative – and yelling at each other is never going to work."

"Well, I could tell you the same about a certain monk we both know!" Kagome whispered angrily back, jerking her head toward the still-sleeping man on the other side of the campfire.

Sango turned beet-red and stood up. "_He_ doesn't _yell_ at me," she quietly retorted, flinging her long bangs out of her eyes.

"No, but you _hit_ him!" Although where Miroku was concerned, he was likely to take that as getting to first base…

Sango sighed and gathered her things. "I'm going to clean my teeth and re-dress in my armor. I have the feeling I'm going to need it today." She gave Kagome a quick look that reeked faintly of 'back-stabber', and went the opposite way of InuYasha, towards the hot spring they'd found the night before. Kirara stood up, gave herself a shake, stretched and then pounced off after her mistress.

"Hey, keep it down. I'm still tired…" Shippo moaned from his spot curled up against Miroku's back.

Ready to scream in frustration, Kagome flopped back down onto her sleeping bag and zipped it all the way up over her head.

* * *

Later, after they'd all gathered for breakfast of a variety of instant noodles, Kagome still couldn't meet InuYasha's eyes, although she and Sango had, thankfully, mutually agreed to forget about their snippiness of earlier.

Meanwhile, Kagome was blaming her dreams on stress – that, and the fact that she'd only just seen Sesshomaru a matter of days before, when all that mess concerning the poor Lady Soluo had come to a head. She'd been really angry with him for being so cruel to the poor, lovesick girl, and then she'd felt just the opposite when she'd watched him free the girl from the demon's possession, and then linger at her side at her 'death'. As usual, his face had shown no emotion, but the fact that he'd stayed by her had totally ruined Kagome's perceptions of him. He'd gone and confused her, and it was bugging the heck out of her subconscious – _that_ was why she was dreaming about him.

_"Yeah, right.'_ Kagome thought hopelessly, recalling the way he placed Lady Soluo's beloved flute near her dissolving form before he'd risen and quite simply walked away. He'd never even shown a sign that he'd noticed, or cared, that she, and InuYasha and the others were running up to assess the scene behind him.

InuYasha had still been furious that the Lady Soluo had managed to nab Tetsusaiga and had handed the sacred sword over to 'the bastard', as he'd put it. He hadn't known exactly why the Lady had stolen it until Kagome had explained to him that Soluo had been trying to impress Sesshomaru.

_'Maybe I do have a **little** crush on Sesshomaru,'_ she thought to herself. _'Maybe, just because he showed that poor girl a kindness when she was dying, and he knew she was so deeply in love with him.'_

After all, it was _so_ romantic…

Kagome sighed, a starry-eyed smile crossing her lips as she put down her chopsticks and turned her head – to see InuYasha practically sitting in her lap again, his golden eyes narrowed only inches away from her own.

"Eep! Geez, what is it, InuYasha?" she asked, reflexively drawing back even when all she wanted to do was grab his ears and cover his face in major smoochies.

"What's wrong with you?" InuYasha asked, still examining her with his eyes.

"Heh…what do you mean, InuYasha?"

"Shippo and I have been sayin' your name for the last three minutes, and you haven't even blinked an eyelash! What's in your head, Kagome?"

Kagome gave a nervous little laugh, looking away. "Er…sorry about that! No enough sleep last night, I guess! What were you saying?"

Miroku entered the campsite just then, from the trees, and Kagome flushed – she hadn't even noticed him get up!

"I agree with Kagome and Sango," the handsome monk said as he walked over to settle down beside Sango again. "There _is_ an ominous aura, just…_here_, perhaps?"

"Aiiieee! You _pervert_!"

**_WHACK!_**

_"OW!"_

_"Damn it, houshi-sama!__ Why do you have to be so grabby?!"_

Miroku flashed a wincing smile at the thoroughly unnerved demon-slayer. "Forgive me, dearest Sango. I would rather cut off my cursed hand than offend you with it."

"Fie! Your entire arm would be hacked off to your shoulder by now if _that_ were true!"

"Mm. As you say, Sango." Miroku merely bowed his apology to her, and said no more on the subject.

Shippo was rolling his eyes at the scene over the lid of his ramen.

Kagome could see Sango's face go bright red with frustration and moved to make a suggestion before the demon-slayer began broadening her hunting options to include arbitrarily-groping monks.

"We don't have time to worry about some half-assed premonition, Kagome," InuYasha immediately complained. "Finding the last of the jewel shards is more important right now."

"Oh!" Kagome stood up, fisting her hands and stomping her feet. " It's always the jewel with you, InuYasha! This is your forest, isn't it? Don't you feel the restlessness in the trees? You know Kaede says that's an evil portent! Something horrible could be coming, and you just don't care! You're such an insensitive jerk sometimes, I swear!"

Instead of yelling back at her, InuYasha responded oddly again, just as he had earlier.

"Let's get going, Kagome. You can finish telling me how much you hate my guts on the way," InuYasha gritted out between clenched teeth as he rose to his feet and sheathed Tetsusaiga.

It made Kagome pause, and most of her anger drained away.

"Huh? I don't _hate_ you, InuYasha," she said in a soft, confused voice.

"Keh!"

"InuYasha – "

"Then what the hell are you yellin' at me for?" he snarled back, his fangs flashing.

"Oh! Grr. Nothing!" she shouted deafeningly. "You really don't have a clue, do you? Just forget it! You probably wouldn't understand what I'm trying to tell you, anyway!"

"Wha -? Are you -? Did you just - ? Now you're callin' me _stupid_?!" The hanyou's ears gave a violent twitch that matched his eyes.

"I don't hate you, BAKA!" Kagome yelled, and then stomped off.

InuYasha snarled something unintelligible and then yelled after her.

"I give up! Tryin' to understand you is like tryin' to swallow a futon mattress!"

At his feet, Shippo tugged on one leg of his hakama to get his attention, and then blinked up at him in wide-eyed bewilderment when he finally glared his way.

_"Wha'd'uwant?!"_ Inuyasha snapped, trying not to slaver around his bared fangs.

"Wow, InuYasha. Did you really try to swallow a futon mattress?"

* * *

_To be continued in Chapter Two…

* * *

_

_Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha, or any related characters._

_A/N: Thanks for reading! Still working on revisions and editing, so please let me know what you think! – D.V._


	3. Chapter 2 Collide

Demon's Night – Chapter Two: Collide

* * *

The passing of time had never held any meaning for him, but with each day that passed, Sesshomaru found himself pre-occupied with thoughts of it – every sunset made him more aware that her life was slowly passing by, and if he so much as blinked, she would be gone.

In the forests surrounding his hidden ancestral home, the ancient castle of the Inu-no-Taisho, Sesshomaru walked, seeking a moment's peace from the steady, unrelenting onslaught of his thoughts. Unfortunately, there was no peace to be found. These days it seemed as if it had always been so.

Sesshomaru paused in the midst of his great forest, turning his face to the starry heavens. His troubled eyes reflected the half-moon back on itself as he absently lifted his hand to massage the constant ache in his chest.

There wasn't a demon he couldn't face down if he so chose; and yet he could not defeat his feelings for a mere human girl.

"If I have to wait any longer than a day to see her again, I shall go mad…" he confessed to himself with a low snarl. As the notion assaulted him, Sesshomaru suddenly darted forward through the dense trees, quickly increasing his speed. At the castle, he ripped open the gate and exploded into the courtyard.

His retainer was the first to greet him, as always, but his cheerful, though stilted attempts at conversation quickly died when he caught a glimpse of his lord's eyes.

"Jaken."

Sesshomaru's voice was quiet, but held the intensity of a shout.

Jaken drew himself erect, holding himself upright against his staff.

"Aye, milord?"

"Collect Rin." Sesshomaru's golden eyes flashed. "I have business to attend."

* * *

"_Oh, no_." Kagome paused in the dense forest as she sneezed repeatedly – _again_. "Oh, I think I'm getting a cold." She sneezed again, and smiled her thanks at Shippou, perched on her shoulder, as he helpfully handed her a tissue from her pack.

"Perhaps it's just InuYasha talking about you behind your back," Sango teased, casting a glance over her shoulder at the hanyou and the monk still moving some distance ahead of them. The two men were involved in some kind of deep discussion, and InuYasha was blushing, shaking his head, clearly becoming frustrated.

"_Sango_!" Kagome shot a warning look at her friend as she tucked the tissue away.

The demon-slayer merely smothered a giggle and dashed ahead a few steps to escape Kagome's answering strike.

"What was that all about?" Shippou asked from her shoulder, one tiny paw curled into the hair at her nape for balance.

Kagome sighed, and stared down at the lacy ferns spread across the forest floor, easily picking out the soft prints of InuYasha's bare feet among the sandal print's of Sango and Miroku impressed in the dark, rich soil.

Something about these past few days just didn't feel right…the unease in the air had grown steadily, but for some reason she'd been the only one to sense it. As a result, she'd been tense, nearly sleepless – and the strain was beginning to wear on her.

"Kagome? Are you feeling alright?"

Kagome started a little, realizing she hadn't answered Shippou's question. She looked up, noticing the little kitsune had climbed over her front, and now clung to the bodice of her white shirt as he peered at her with concerned, teal-green eyes.

"Oh, Shippou!" Kagome smiled cheerily and reached up to pat his cheek. "I'm fine! Just a little tired, I guess. I'll be better after a good night's sleep." _As if _that'll_ ever happen…_

"We'll be stopping soon," Sango said, looking at the low position of the sun in the sky. "But you do look exhausted, Kagome. I'll tell the men we need to slow down a bit. Why don't you – "

A sudden gigantic crash in the ancient trees ahead cut her off, and they looked up as a huge, four-story slug youkai, dripping poisonous secretions from its filmy gray flesh, burst into the air directly above them, it's bulbous, glittering red eyes fixed on – who else – _Kagome_…

* * *

The campsite had been chosen with care, and the fire skillfully lit as the moon rose in the sapphire skies above.

Kagome sat on a downed log close to the fire, listening with half-an-ear as the others spoke of the slug they'd destroyed earlier. She was afraid the look of disgust on her face was going to become permanent as she looked down at her slime covered clothes and skin, gingerly holding her shirt away from her chest.

_Ugh, I reek!_ she thought to herself, feeling the crust covering her cheeks and arms begin to itch. It was truly disgusting…and _totally_ unfair! Why had it only been her, out of all the others, who had been so thoroughly slimed?

_'The same reason as always. Because you were the one carrying the jewel shards, you baka',_ she told herself, shaking her head. In truth, Sango had said the slug had been coating her with it's bile to ready her for swifter digestion when it swallowed her – _gross_!

InuYasha had sniffed out the scent of water nearby, so now all she had to do was go and find it. When she found the energy, that is.

Kagome sighed, and slumped a little as her tiredness swept over her again.

_'Oh, well,'_ she thought hopefully, _'maybe since I'm so worn out I'll actually get some sleep tonight. I'm too whipped to worry about evil portents…or dreams about a naked Sesshomaru…eh – did I really just think that !'_

"_Kagome_!"

"Huh? Wha?" Kagome jumped, saw Miroku and InuYasha staring at her, and turned a vivid pink. She forced a wide smile and looked at them apologetically.

"Oh. Sorry. Were you…saying something, InuYasha?" she asked with an unconsciously shy sweetness, her eyes going soft as they met his.

"Keh!" The hanyou had a faint red flush across his upper cheeks as he turned his nose up at her. Said appendage was wrinkling slightly, as if he'd caught scent of something that was bothering him.

"It almost looks as if Kagome-sama has been entertaining wicked thoughts," Miroku commented mischievously, one dark eyebrow arching as he gave her faintly seductive glance.

InuYasha glared, his displeasure fiery sparks coming out of the corners of his eyes before he fully turned his head with a snap, and growled at him. "Cut it out, ya' lecher! Can't ya' tell she ain't feelin' well?"

Kagome blinked, coming out of her slump a little. InuYasha had noticed! Did that mean he had been worrying about her, after all? Maybe he wasn't angry with her anymore…

To his credit, Miroku's suggestive smirk dropped instantly. He reached out a warm, gentle hand to tip Kagome's face to the firelight. He narrowed his brilliant, dark violet eyes at her as his gaze traveled over her face, missing nothing. "She _is_ a bit pale. And her eyes are becoming bruised. Is it true? Are you becoming ill, Kagome-sama? Perhaps the slug youkai's poison has begun to affect you?"

Kagome pulled her chin out of his grasp. "I'm fine," she said sternly, trying to get the attention away from her. "Maybe just a little tired from being dragged all over Mushashi nearly non-stop for the past week!" she settled her eyes pointedly on InuYasha, and then could have kicked herself for saying it. She hadn't _meant_ it! She just wanted everyone to stop focusing solely on her!

Any concern InuYasha might have been exhibiting for her flew right out the window.

"Hey, I don't wanna' hear nuthin' about that, 'specially since _you're_ the one who broke the freakin' jewel in the first place!"

"Hey, you!" Kagome shouted right back, feeling defensive. He always had to throw _that_ up in her face, poke at it because he knew it was her sore spot. "It's been, like, _years_ since that happened! Can't you let go of it! Why do you always hafta' bring that up? There were a lot of factors, y'know – _you_ being a key one of them!""

But he wasn't even listening to her, now._ "'Let go of it'!" _InuYasha nearly went cross-eyed at the suggestion. He stood up, standing there with his shoulders hunched, his clawed hands fisted as if he might suddenly tackle her…

Kagome lost her breath at the thought, felt her lower body surge with warmth for a second, and then decided she'd also lost her _mind_! For a second there she'd almost wanted him to - Geez, what was up with her lately? Was she turning into a – what was it Ayami had teasingly called Yume that time? A…a nymphomaniac? Huh. She still wasn't sure exactly what that meant, but it had to do with thinking about that three-letter 'S' word an awful lot – and it wasn't 'Sit', either!

"Come on, Kagome," Sango said abruptly, lifting her with a gentle arm around her shoulder. "Let's go find that water."

Kagome was so engrossed in paying attention to Sango bustling her off, she didn't even realize InuYasha was taking a moment to stare at her as if in shock, his eyes wide as he sniffed the air around him in disbelief.

At the mention of bathing Miroku was suddenly standing beside them, eyes shaded by his lashes, his serene expression belied by the eagerness of his movements. "Hm. Perhaps I should come with you. There may be more slug youkai in the area, and – "

Sango blithely turned him down. "Forget it. Take a piece of Kagome-chan's advice and 'Let go of it'. You're not going anywhere!"

"Whaddya' mean, 'let go of it' !" InuYasha apparently forgot his musings and loudly bit out through his clenched fangs, "You – "

Kagome gritted her teeth. She'd had enough of his ranting. "Sit, boy!"

_Whump_ InuYasha hit the ground, growling into the dirt. _"Bitch!"_

"Hmph! I told you, I don't like being called that, InuYasha! Maybe you should _sit_, and think about it!"Kagome snapped right back.

_"Gwa-ah!"__ THUD._

Sango put one fingertip on Miroku's chest and pushed him down beside the hanyou.

"You, too, houshi-sama. Sit…and _stay_."

Shippou was cracking up as the girl's left the firelight, rolling on Kagome's sleeping bag as he guffawed.

Miroku closed his eyes, a disgruntled look on his face. "How dare she treat me like a lowly dog," he muttered beneath his breath.

InuYasha sat up as the spell on the kotodama beads wore off, and was in Miroku's face in an instant. Confused by the abrupt changes in Kagome's scent, and oddly frustrated, he was spoiling for a fight. _"Whad'usay…!"_

Miroku cracked open one eye and then out-of-nowhere, whacked him on the side of the head with his staff.

"_Ow_! Watch it, monk! You're askin' for it!" InuYasha rubbed his head and jumped up to his feet, obviously fully intending to follow Kagome and straighten her out on a few things.

Not to be left out of any excuse to see Sango bathing, Miroku stood up, too, but had taken nary a step when InuYasha tripped him, and he hit the ground, face first.

InuYasha smirked down on him.

"Ha! How'd _that_ feel, monk?"

Miroku narrowed his eyes and reached out lightning fast to grab hold of the hanyou's bare ankle. There was a surprised grunt as InuYasha's leg was tugged out from under him, and then another yelp from Miroku as the demon teetered the wrong direction, trying to save himself, and ended up landing on top of him.

Shippou shook his head at the pained groans of the two men as they fought to disentangle themselves, still sniping at each other all along.

"Baka's…"

* * *

_"I'm heading back to camp, now, Kagome! Will you be alright?"_

_"I'll be okay, Sango! I'll be right there! Just let me rinse off these suds!"_

_

* * *

_

"Oh, the disgusting human!"

Jaken gaped at the scene before him for the merest instant before quickly turning away and leaving the immediate area with a revolted snort. He retrieved an innocently humming Rin from nearby and they both retreated some distance into the forest.

Sesshomaru knew the demon was just attempting to save face. The sight of the ningen female rising nude from the depths of the spring, clothed only in the spray of the minute waterfall and the iridescent moonlight, would make even an impotent little toad like Jaken hard enough to hammer nails.

It was just as well he'd beaten such a hasty retreat – Sesshomaru would have killed him merely for glimpsing her so, if he didn't care to be bothered to find another servant to watch over Rin.

_Kagome._ He didn't know if it was a stroke of providence or the cruel joke of some hell-born deity that he had arrived and found her at her bath.

If only she were youkai…he could picture her driven mindless in a mating heat, wearing nothing but the exotic markings of his kind, and he wondered again at the idiocy of his brother in not already having claimed the girl. It obviously did not matter to_ him_ that she was human…

His mind was slipping. He was surely delirious, or even mad.

No, he _was_ mad. He, the great Lord of the West, heir of the Inu-no-Taisho, was lingering in the tall reeds on the bank of a pool, watching a female bathe as if he were some lowly, perverted human male, with no honor to speak of…

* * *

Kagome finished wringing out her hair before she waded up to the shallows to retrieve her towel from the bank and dry the rest of herself off. She'd just reached out for the soft terrycloth when she came face to face with the red eyes of a large, black bear youkai which had come hunting fish in the shadows at the water's edge.

Kagome froze in terror, her hand still extended for the towel. She'd sensed a presence a few minutes ago, while Sango was still here, but she'd just shrugged it off as being bathing monkeys again. Apparently her exhaustion was messing with her more than she'd thought! How could she have missed the approach of a fifteen-foot demonic bear!

She stared at the bear as it approached her, it's huge damp nose swinging around, scenting the air. It made a slight snuffling noise as it drew nearer to her, coming out into the moonlight. It's sleek black coat sparkled with a thousand tiny water droplets from the waterfall, and it's breath – Kagome scrunched up her own nose – smelled like rotten fish. She tried to hold her breath as it opened it's jaws, revealing sharp teeth in black gums, coated with deep yellow tartar. She held perfectly still as it sniffed her, and then let her breath out as it finally moved back, seeming as if it might be bored with her, and leave. The bear let out a sudden growl, though and lifted a massive claw to swipe at her, and Kagome remembered the jewel shards glinting around her neck. Of course it wasn't leaving! She couldn't be that lucky !

Kagome's throat was too tight to let the scream building in it out, so she only whimpered as she threw herself back into the water, as far and as fast as she could move – but the bear was much faster, and simply plunged into the water after her. She didn't have a chance! Her lips opened on a gasp as the bear took another swipe at her, and she felt her heel slip on the damp stone and silt at the bottom of the pond. Just as she was about to go under, and be completely at the bear's mercy, a clawed hand grasped her harshly by the upper arm. Then she was flying through the air at an inhuman speed, and all she could see was a wash of dark blood as the bear youkai was swiftly dealt with. The demon let out an agonized howl as it was defeated, and Kagome closed her eyes against her dizziness as relief sang through her.

InuYasha…thank goodness. She should have known he'd save her…

She gave a shuddering sob as she realized she was standing on the bank, her heart pounding against his side. She was gasping for air as if she couldn't quite get enough of it, and she felt more than a little faint as she finally noticed her bare, wet skin was cold and pressed tightly against InuYasha's side. She kept her eyes closed as she choked slightly and pushed herself away from him. She turned her back and bent over to retrieve her towel as quickly as she could, holding it over her front as she turned back to him. The sight she beheld nearly gave her a heart attack. She began to shake even harder, unsure whether it was fear causing it, or something else altogether.

Kagome felt the dizziness sweep over her again, and sucked in a deep breath – she'd stopped breathing - again!

"Calm yourself. The danger to you…has passed." As if to completely negate this, his golden eyes flickered over her exposed skin, making her tingle as if they burned where they touched.

She took a few staggering steps back out of self-preservation and clutched at the towel barely covering her front.

Danger passed? _Yeah, right!_

"S-sesshomaru?"

"Hai. Are you going to faint, miko?" the tai-youkai drawled coolly.

Kagome bit on her tongue – she wouldn't faint. If she did, she was too close to the water, and she'd fall in. Sesshomaru would be the type to let her drown. But if that really was the case, why had he bothered to save her from the bear?

Sesshomaru stepped closer to her. "Miko."

Kagome looked up at him, startled. He didn't say anything more, but she could tell she'd offended him by not giving him her total attention. She couldn't look away once her fascinated gaze attached itself to him once more.

The way he moved and spoke; that quiet confident voice; he was everything his legend made him out to be. His deceivingly apathetic golden eyes that even while they were showing derision, could still stir the senses.

Kagome shivered. How could his eyes hold so much coldness in their depths when they were such a warm, vivid color? Even when he was being passionate, like in her dreams – eep!

She wasn't going there, not right in front of _him_!

Flustered, Kagome once again backed away from him, not noticing until it was too late that she was just moving further and further away from her pile of clothing. She paused as she felt the sharp rocks near the drop in the water prick under her feet, and made a face when she saw the demon lord following her, slowly stalking, and he stepped right over her clothes without a care, not stopping until they lay directly behind him. If she didn't know better…she'd have thought he was _trying_ to keep her from them!

"G-geez, Sesshomaru, you could have told me you were st-standing there!" she suddenly blurted, trying to stave off her nervous breakdown by talking. "I thought you were InuYasha, but then I realized you weren't, and - you scared me half-t-to-death!"

Sesshomaru was not sympathetic. Compassion was not in his nature...no, his emotions just then were on the entirely opposite end of the scale. His heavily-lidded eyes dropped to the expanse of her bare skin once again.

"InuYasha often sees you thus?" he rumbled lowly, infuriated by the jealousy sharpening his words.

Kagome's cheeks burned red-hot. "W-what are you doing here, anyway?"

His eyes flared. "My brother's job, apparently. He is a fool to leave you unguarded on a night such as this. There are malevolent forces lingering in this forest. Naraku is near."

"I can take care of myself – what? Naraku! I…you can feel it, too? Are you sure it's Naraku? Everyone else thinks I'm crazy!"

Sesshomaru took an impatient step forward. The wind had changed, and his brother would scent the demon blood – and himself - in it and soon come running. It was not his intention to waste time speaking of the lowly hanyou, Naraku.

"Why don't you cry?" he abruptly asked, a slight mocking tone to his voice. "Are you not frightened by what almost happened?"

"Huh? Oh, what, with the bear? Hey, I don't cry _that_ easily! Besides, tears do nothing but…but make you feel worse," she finished faintly.

"My brother taught you this." It wasn't a question, but a simple statement of fact. Sesshomaru made a faint sound of disgust in his throat. "He belittles you."

Kagome's jaw fell wide open. "Wha?"

"It is unwise to belittle females, be they weak humans or no. Survival knows no rank. Females are, however different, no less important in the scheme of things. They create life, nurture it. Males cannot give of themselves in quite such a manner."

Kagome was speechless. She couldn't believe she was standing in a spring, near naked with a demon that hated her and her species, and was actually succeeding in both complementing her and insulting her, all at the same time!

"B-but…InuYasha! How can you say that? InuYasha is a _great_ fighter – he's beaten you any number of times, now, hasn't he?" Kagome cringed even as she said the words, awaiting his anger. To her surprise, Sesshomaru only lifted his nose and looked down at her with his glinting, hooded eyes from beneath the soft wave of the white fringe swaying against his marked forehead. The slashing, dark carnelian markings on his lean cheeks made him look even fiercer than usual in inconstant moonlight.

"InuYasha is but a pup. Fifty years pinned to the God Tree have availed him none. His thoughts and reactions are rash. He succeeds in battle simply because he is hungry."

Kagome was confused, but somehow she understood that. InuYasha did have a 'hungry' look about him, and it had nothing to do with ramen – at least, not most of the time.

She looked at the demon lord, standing there by his perfect reflection in the water, watching him watching her with that icy-hot gaze of his.

"And…y-you're not? Hungry, that is?" Kagome almost bit through her tongue – kami, why had she asked that! '_Kagome!__ Hentai!' _she berated herself silently. When had she become so dirty-minded!

He bridged the distance between them in less than a heartbeat.

Suddenly he stood close by, so close that their breaths mingled. He was gazing down at her with eyes that flared with heat, brightening their color into golden fire.

"I have gone insane, and yet, at this moment, I do not care. I _am_ hungry, miko. I could devour you whole and never suffer a moment's regret," he rasped lowly in her ear, so lowly she thought she might have imagined him saying it. He pulled back immediately, his eyes once again frigid with cold.

Shock at his words, coupled with exhaustion and the aftereffects of the slime that had gotten to her before she'd washed it off, made her feel dizzy again. She felt herself teeter on the rocks, felt a sizzle of electricity as Sesshomaru reached out to steady her. His fingers wrapped around her arm, and tightened, and she gave a small whimper of protest as he gripped her bruised muscles. He quickly released her from his hold.

"What is this? Have I harmed you?"

Kagome opened her mouth to ask, 'Do you care?' in a particularly snotty way, but she drew in a quick breath as the barest touch of his warm fingertip coasted along the soft, sensitive skin of her bare upper arm. She felt the slightest graze of the point of his claw against her skin, too, and shuddered, trying to tell herself it was because she could remember just what kind of damage those poisonous claws were capable of. She stepped back, clutching her towel to her breasts as she dropped her eyes from his to the ground.

She felt her heart slam against her chest, and swallowed, trying to relax. "I-It's nothing. When you grabbed me out of the way of the bear…I-I bruise easily."

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed slightly. "Hn. Human's are so fragile."

Kagome frowned back at him. "I don't think I like the way you said that, mister! Just because I'm not immortal doesn't mean you can dismiss me from existence!"

"Would that it could be done so easily," he murmured softly. Without actually touching her, he inclined his head to breathe in her fragrance. The sudden compulsion clearly bothered him, annoyed him. It showed in the downturn of his lips.

He suddenly took a huge backwards lunge through the air away from her, landing on the opposite side of the bank from her. He'd done it with his usual effortless grace, but she still gaped at his speed.

Sesshomaru tossed his hair back, and regarded her with an almost indignant expression, which was hugely unsettling in and of itself, since Sesshomaru didn't usually _have_ an expression – except maybe angry or irritated…

"Why do you regard me with such awe?"

Still caught within the snare of his powerful presence, Kagome blinked at his words. "What?" Had she been staring _again_?

"You look at this Sesshomaru as if you've never looked upon a demon before."

Kagome snapped to attention, realizing she _had_ been staring…and possibly drooling…more like _slobbering_ -

"Hey, you've got a lot of nerve!" she snapped, trying to recover. "_Your_ ego's even bigger than InuYasha's!"

To her amazement, Sesshomaru seemed to find humor in this – he _smiled_ at her! Well, it was really more of a smirk, and he didn't show any of his teeth, but still…

It was amazing, the transformation…and kinda' scary.

Not that he was ugly or anything , when he smiled. In fact, he almost looked…softer. No, that wasn't it. Just….more approachable, maybe? More…human.

But he wasn't human. That was why it was so frightening. He was full-demon. So why ?

"Everything about me is bigger than InuYasha, little miko," Sesshomaru suddenly stated, the smile gone, but hints of it lingering in his smooth voice.

Kagome gulped, gaping at him like a fish. _Huh_?

She was innocent, but being around Miroku and his constant innuendos for so long had taken care of a lot of that! She'd have to have been really dumb not to notice what he was insinuating.

_Gah_! She brought a hand to her throat, trying to ease it's sudden tightening. She was in completely new territory here! Sesshomaru trying to kill her because she annoyed him, she was used to – but Sesshomaru…._flirting_ with her? That was just plain terrifying! Especially if one paid attention to the dreams she'd been having – which she _didn't_…!

_"KAGOME!"_

Kagome jumped as she heard InuYasha yelling for her as he crashed through the forest not too far away. Before she could even open her mouth to answer, he was there, behind her, and she automatically turned toward him to hide her bare backside. The hanyou almost dropped his sword as he gaped at her, and then he drew himself up and sneered. "Sesshomaru!"

"Hn. Brother," she heard the demon lord respond less-than-enthusiastically from behind her. That was when she remembered she was presenting him with a fine view of her rear!

Kagome whimpered hopelessly, whirling around to hide it from him, and heard InuYasha choke – and quite possibly, pant briefly, before she realized he was getting a good view of it, himself, now!

_"Oh! I give up!"_ She took a deep, ragged breath and thrust her chin up into the air. She let the towel drop from her strangling grip, and clenched her teeth against the absolute silence that followed her action. She swallowed, and, refusing to look directly at either one of them, stomped straight toward Sesshomaru, and made a wide circle around him to get to her clothes. Once she had shrugged into her pink and grey jersey nightshirt, and tugged on her black leggings – the nights were becoming cold again – she gave a little grimace over having forgotten her panties, and turned back toward the camp without a word to either brother.

She was at the trees before she stopped, and looked a little back over her shoulder at Sesshomaru – still not quite meeting his eyes. "Thanks for saving me, Sesshomaru. See you back at camp, InuYasha. Try not to kill each other, okay? You're too loud when you fight, and I _gotta__'_ get some sleep tonight." With that, she was gone.

* * *

"I ought to kill you for daring to look at her like that!" InuYasha snarled as Kagome disappeared. His sword arm was shaking in reaction to what he'd just seen – not that he'd never seen Kagome naked before – it was just that she'd been smelling so different lately that he'd been almost constantly on edge. Despite his promises to Kikyou, Kagome was soft, and warm, kind, and…alive. And he _knew_ she loved him. He wanted her so badly he couldn't think straight, sometimes.

"InuYasha. When are you going to decide to make this world a better place at last by leaving it?"

InuYasha looked at his brother with unmasked loathing. "What're you doin' here, Sesshomaru? You're at least three days travel away from the west."

Sesshomaru lifted one eyebrow, looking down on him condescendingly. "Hn. Three days perhaps for _you_, little brother."

InuYasha shrugged off the sting of the insult, well-used to it – and much worse – by now.

"Whatever. Just beat it, will ya'? I don't wanna' hafta' kill ya' after you 'saved' Kagome," he said this as if he really doubted Sesshomaru's part in it, despite seeing the carcass of the bear demon nearby. "Killin' you ain't worth havin' her pissed at me all night."

"InuYasha," Sesshomaru said his name almost pityingly. "You're her faithful dog, are you not? She tells you to roll over and sit, and you do not hesitate."

InuYasha's hand tightened on Tetsusaiga. "Oi! I don't roll over for anybody!"

"On the contrary. You would do her bidding most readily, I think, if the miko flipped that obscene skirt of hers for you – as long as she rubbed more than just your belly."

"Grrr! I'll kill you! How dare you talk about Kagome like that!"

"Hn. Do not feel too badly, little brother. Even the best are inclined to fall at times – what else could be expected of the worst, such as you?"

InuYasha growled, readying himself to strike – and then he caught just a hint of the scent emanating from his brother. Inu youkai only had that scent when they were intent on mating, and Sesshomaru was trying very hard to mask it. Despite his rising rage at the thought that his brother was thinking about Kagome – his Kagome – in _that_ way, InuYasha smirked at Sesshomaru.

"Keh! I can smell it on you, too, idiot. You're one to talk. Even the best, huh?" He shook his head. "Kagome loves _me_ – she wouldn't even give a cold, stuffy old bastard like you a second glance."

Sesshomaru's eyes widened fractionally at the insult, his hand moving to the hilt of his sword. It was a slow, deliberate motion, and made obvious the fact that someone was about to have their ass kicked.

InuYasha only laughed at him.

"If she loves you so much, dear brother, why did she not run from me when I gave her the chance?"

InuYasha's snigger was suddenly cut off. "If I find out you so much as breathed on her –"

"Pathetic fool. You are dragging her down with you and you do not even see. Go mate your cold, undead miko – and leave the mortal to me. When I finish with her, she won't even recall your name," Sesshomaru taunted with a predatory smirk.

Infuriated, InuYasha snarled, and leapt into the air, bringing down Tetsusaiga with a deafening _"Kaze no Kizu!"_

He was standing, chest heaving, in the middle of the ruined pond when he saw Sesshomaru floating high in the air above him, unmoved, and apparently, unharmed.

"Come down here and fight me, you bastard! Fucking coward!" he screamed.

Sesshomaru only stared at him, and then moved away over the trees, taking his time as if there wasn't a furious InuYasha waiting to claw his heart out.

InuYasha slumped hen his brother was out of sight, closing his eyes against the mental pictures of Sesshomaru forcing himself on Kagome. The truly scary thing, though, was the thought that, with the way he'd been treating Kagome lately…and the way she'd been smelling…it might not be force.

InuYasha closed his eyes, forcing the images away. He loosened his hold on the sword, allowing it to transform, and he carefully slid it into it's sheath before turning in the opposite direction Sesshomaru had taken, and walking quietly back to the camp.

* * *

Sesshomaru stepped out of the air onto the ground of a river bank a bare mile away from where he'd left Kagome and his brother. He could sense that Jaken and Rin were bedding themselves down for the night, nearby, and he could also smell Naraku's insidious evil still pervading the area. He would not leave them alone this night; but he found he was not yet ready to face his followers just yet, either.

Drinking in the light of the blue moon, Sesshomaru knelt by the river, placing his hand on his knee to quiet it's shaking.

_Kagome_. He'd seen so much of her this night, and yet nowhere near enough. While he wanted her body, he found he also wanted…just to hear her speak. She had such an odd way of speaking, yet she was so heartfelt in her words…she'd warmed him just by talking to him. He'd wanted to drop to his knees, and bury his face in her warm female flesh and beg her to hold him…

Sesshomaru shook his head minutely as he gazed upon his reflection in the water. In the shadows and the moonlight, he almost could have passed for his father.

Hn. His father, a Great Demon, who had also wanted a mortal woman.

The memory of his father's complete surrender to the human princess was almost enough to enrage him again. Just thinking of giving of himself to the little miko was a betrayal to his mighty ancestors.

Great Demons…males of his ilk just weren't used to surrendering to anything…or anyone...and yet he knew he would surrender to her, and willingly, if she wanted him.

He knew now that she did. Maybe she would not love him, as she obviously did InuYasha – but her body had responded to him, even her mind had not.

Back at the spring he'd easily caught the change in her scent, and knowing she was instinctively responding to him in kind had almost driven him over the edge of reason.

No, she may not love him. But he had the feeling he could _make_ her.

Sesshomaru, sick of the confusion, curled his hand into a fist and angrily smashed the reflection in the water with it.

_'Miko…Kagome…damn you for bringing me down to this…'_

_'Father… why didn't you warn me?'_

And then, suddenly, he smiled - the rarest, slightest upturn of the corners of his lips.

_'Ah, but you did, didn't you? Your warning to me against falling in love, against taking a human to mate…was your own painful, lingering death, was it not? I know now what it means...'_

Sesshomaru's long hair fell over his shoulder, veiling his pain and silence as he bowed his proud head in formal surrender.

_'This loving a mortal will mean my end.' _

_

* * *

_

_To be continued…_

(A/N: Hey, many thanks for the reviews! I'm happy to see someone taking a liking to the story, even if some of the plot devices are kinda' – okay, let's be honest, here, a _LOT_ – overused. LOL. Anyway, I appreciate the input, guys. Let me know if you have any more comments! I'm hoping to get a few pieces of fanart for 'Demon's Night' up within the next few weeks, so keep an eye out if you're interested. I already have a few examples posted up on Media Miner under my name 'Vanvliet'. By the way, the title and inspiration for this chapter came from Howie Day's song, 'Collide'. I heard it for the first time and all this stuff just popped into my head. Guess there was a plot bunny laying in wait, there, somewhere! – D.V.)


	4. 3 Company of Devils The Bloody Centenary

* * *

Demon's Night 

_Chapter Three: In the Company of Devils – The Bloody Centenary, Part I

* * *

_

_She was drifting in a gray place, and it felt as if she'd been there for quite some time. She was getting kinda' lonely, in fact…and a little worried. Why was she here? Had the others forgotten her? Was anyone looking for her? She didn't belong here, did she? She belonged with – _

"_Kagome…"_

Blinking against the unending monochrome surrounding her, she saw a figure standing in the distance, almost blending in with the background. She couldn't tell who it was, at first – all she could make out was long, swirling mass of hair, the powerful silhouette of a man - but then the figure drew closer, and she tried to draw back, but she was still floating, unable to gain any kind of purchase in the thick air.

It was the dream again, her dreams…yet this time it was different. Sesshomaru was there again, bare save for the flowing white pelt draped across one powerful shoulder, and the long , magnificent wave of his hair, but he didn't make any move to force himself on her, to make her accept him as he had all the times before…and there was something else, too.

'My name, he said my name…'

_She closed her eyes tight as a lean, clawed hand reached out to touch her hair. She caught her breath and squeezed them shut tighter as the hand slid away and the knuckle of a single finger pushed gently upward under her chin. The contact sent a sensual tickle down her throat, causing heat to spread across her chest._

"_Kagome…" the rumbling syllables of her name caressed the air just above her lips. "Gaze upon me."_

_Her eyelashes trembled, but she still refused to look. _

"_N-no."_

"_You want me."_

"_No! I don't…I don't even know you!" Kagome kept her eyes closed and turned her face away from him._

_His hand slid back up her cheek, clawed fingers pushing deeply into her hair as he pulled her close to murmur into her ear - "I see you, Kagome. Why…do you not see me?"_

_It was the most emotion she'd ever heard in his voice, and his quiet entreaty brought tears to her eyes._

_She felt his hand leave her hair and drift down her neck in a sweet caress before moving slowly over the curve of her shoulder, down her arm, her hip. The touch was almost hesitant, and she found herself lifting her wet lashes to catch the rare emotion sure to be in his amber eyes._

"_Sesshomaru…"

* * *

_

The dream abruptly faded as she opened her eyes not to the demon lord, but to the beautiful – and cold – night sky.

Kagome felt the night breeze drift over her heated cheeks and she stared in helpless confusion into the glittering blackness above with a sense of fear…and worse, weakness.

She loved InuYasha…but _he_ could make her abandon all of her common sense, and forget her own will. Just knowing his eyes were on her had made the world move under her feet.

Kagome shifted, sitting up in her sleeping bag as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the others sleeping soundly around her. She knew she wasn't going to get any more sleep tonight. If she did, she'd probably end up having nightmares.

She buried her face in her hands, rubbing away the tears that still clung stubbornly to her lashes.

She was being foolish, and romantic – she knew Sesshomaru had no more real interest in her than he had in a particularly odd-looking bug found under his foot – yet she couldn't help the feeling that there was more to him than met the eye, if she only dared to look.

Sesshomaru was more than dangerous to her – he was just plain _deadly_. He could kill her with a flick of his fingers if he ever _really_ wanted to.

Despite that, somehow she knew…she could love him; and that was more frightening than any nightmare her stupid brain could work up.

* * *

She was genuinely kind, this girl, this human. Even more so than he'd realized.

Most beings were kind in the way that they expected something in return – but not this Kagome.

Sesshomaru had followed her and InuYasha's little band on and off for several weeks now, and he had seen the both the best and the worst of her – of which there was little to speak of. The purity of this girl was…impressive. She gave of herself, and gave, and gave yet again. He'd watched from afar as she tried with her maiden's naivety to bring the monk and the demon-slayer together, with little success, but with some results even he'd found to be humorous. He'd looked on with jealous fury as she defended a weakened InuYasha in battle with the wrath of a wronged goddess, watched in genuine mystification as she treated the ills of unfamiliar ningen children, and gave her own nourishment away to poor, weary travelers along the dangerous roads. She even defended her rival, Kikyo against the harsh words of her companions, and took the nuisance of a mischievous kitsune under her care as only a mother would.

Sesshomaru still rankled at the thought of loving a mortal human woman, but he had had much time to resign himself to it. For long hours, he allowed himself to dream…

His heart – what there was of it – was set on having her, and have her he would. Watching her all these past weeks had convinced him that she though she had a sadly limited lifespan, she was more than worthy of being his mate – though he need not gift her with his offspring if he did not wish it. He was still very young, and powerful, and could afford to wait until she was…gone to persuade himself get an heir on a comely, full-blooded demoness. He had long ago decided he would not take concubines to his bed when he at last chose to mate. Watching his lovely dam drive herself haggard and mad over the frequent infidelities of his sire had made him certain of that at a very young age. He would not see Kagome hurt, and she would be if he took lovers – not that he any wish to - because her heart was very delicate in that way.

Sesshomaru also had no wish to leave behind him a legacy of hanyous – he was convinced the West could not be controlled by any less than a full-blooded tai-youkai, and watching the reckless frolics of his half-brother these past years had made him ever more convinced of it.

Sesshomaru didn't bother to turn from his position at the edge of a great, flat rock jutting out over the valley where the village InuYasha frequented lay, when he felt the cold, seeping presence of another suddenly crouching nearby.

"Naraku," he acknowledged the hanyou tonelessly, speaking instead to the dusk settling itself over the lush green land, and the temperate wind that sluiced through the heavy length of his hair with gentle fingers.

A low, insidious laugh came from behind him. "Lord Sesshomaru," the dark hanyou greeted him slyly. "Why is it I find you watching over InuYasha's village so often of late? Your gaze is so intent, as if you are strategizing; yet you make no move to attack. It does make one wonder…"

Sesshomaru made no comment, which the dark hanyou wisely took as warning…but he did not leave without making a comment of his own, predictably.

"Enjoy your night, my lord. With your sudden obsession with InuYasha's miko, it should be very…pleasurable. I shall enjoy watching the events unfold."

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed at the hanyou's perceptiveness, and he turned to pierce the empty eyes of the baboon pelt with a savage gaze. "Of what nonsense do you speak?"

"The moon is rising, the twilight wanes. Do you not feel the beckoning of darkness?"

Sesshomaru's thin black pupils widened – it was his only concession to his surprise.

"I see you understand, my lord Sesshomaru," Naraku chuckled evilly. "The world is but Evil's plaything – a night, one night a century for all demons to gain what they truly desire."

"_Demon's Night_," Sesshomaru murmured, disgusted with himself for becoming so involved in his emotions with the miko that he had forgotten the approach of the 'Bloody Centenary'. The unrest in the forests, in the very _air_ these last months, should have reminded him.

"Yes," Naraku agreed. "Alas, I am still but a hanyou., and therefore cannot participate. I cannot tell you how this disappoints me," the voice deep within the hood purred, "but I am certain watching others triumph where I cannot, even if it is only for this one night, will be just as satisfying."

Sesshomaru looked down at the dark hanyou, expressionless. "You wish for me to kill InuYasha." It was a flat statement, not a question.

"Witnessing his death, even if it is a false one, would be sweet," Naraku agreed.

"What do I receive in return for this bit of…entertainment?"

"I have watched you of late. You seem to have a particular…interest in the little miko. You cannot be blamed, my lord – the miko radiates life, and hope. Even without the attraction of her shards of the Shikon jewel she is nothing less than delectable." Naraku chuckled at the crackle of Sesshomaru's claws. "In return for this small boon, I shall grant you the ability to fully enjoy the miko without worrying over the 'fate' of your human ward and retainer. I may not have the ability to wish them harm this night, but I can…_influence_ others."

None could get past the barrier he'd set around his lands, not even on _this_ night; there was no danger to Rin or Jaken. Naraku's threat carried no concern for him, but apparently the hanyou did not know this.

Instead of answering the loathsome creature, Sesshomaru gave a slight inclination of his head as if in agreement of his 'terms', and walked on. He would allow the revolting beast to think he was in control – for now. Though the thing he had spoken with was but a puppet, the true Naraku was close at hand – and so was his complete and utter annihilation by Sesshomaru's hand. The tai-youkai had tired of the half-demon's games, and now that Sesshomaru had developed an '_interest', _as he'd put it in the miko, he would no longer tolerate any interference from him.

He would no longer allow the female he loved to face this devil alone. Despite his wishes to take Kagome to mate, he knew it was unrealistic. He'd allowed himself to daydream these past weeks, something he'd never indulged himself in before. Kagome… She …loved InuYasha. Killing the hanyou would do nothing to endear him to her. Demon's Night was his only chance to have her to himself without inviting her complete and utter hatred of him. She would be compelled to do as he wished, and he wished _many_ things…

In return, for her, for her safety, and her peace, when this cursed night fell prey to the dawn, he would consign Naraku to hell…where he belonged; and he, Sesshomaru, would not look beyond into bleak eternity until he was forced to.

* * *

"What's wrong with you, InuYasha? You're acting so…twitchy," Kagome said as the group prepared to bed down for the coming night.

"Keh."

Kagome scowled at the stubbornly uncommunicative hanyou. He'd been acting more temper mental than usual in the past weeks since the night Sesshomaru had rescued her from certain death.

Honestly, she didn't know what right he had to be all grumpy and impatient – _she_ was the one who'd been having the worst run of luck of anyone, ever, lately! Besides the trips, falls, the scrapes, and the slimes, she also ended up running around bare-butt naked in front of the two most gorgeous creatures in existence, been hit on – _again_ – by Kouga-of-the-angel-blue-eyes, groped by Miroku, and bombarded with yet more naughty dreams of Sesshomaru! And, to top it all off, she was _still_ getting that almost-sick feeling of foreboding – yet it had been a while since they'd come across any of Naraku's puppets.

Today they'd fought off a small, blue, satyr-looking demon who'd moved even too fast for InuYasha – he'd been attracted to them by the jewel shards Kagome was carrying, but he'd been smart enough to realize he'd die trying to get them – so he'd contented himself with disappearing with the whole contents of Kagome's that-very-morning-newly-stocked yellow backpack! Which meant she had no clothes, no toothbrush, no…

"_Whaddya' mean, no ramen!"_

_That_ got InuYasha to talking.

Sighing in irritation, Kagome threw her hands into the air. She really wished InuYasha hadn't hurried them along so much that afternoon, so they could leave before nightfall. That already annoyed her, and _this_ wasn't helping! "That imp ran off with it, InuYasha! I'm sorry, but unless you fell like hunting it down, there's not a whole lot I can do abut it until I go back home and restock."

InuYasha stomped around camp for the largest part of the early evening, grumbling about 'stinking ramen-thieves' and 'stupid, useless wenches'. Just as Kagome had had enough, InuYasha suddenly jerked to a stop, sniffed the air, and bounded off into the trees, only to return a short time later with the tattered remnants of the yellow backpack, which he shoved at her almost sheepishly. "The demon was gone when I got there, but it left this," he mumbled.

"Sorry, I think it ate all the ramen, InuYasha," Kagome sighed as she inspected the much-depleted contents of the ragged bag. "Oh, no, not the first-aid kit! Grr! I think it ate all my extra clothes, too," she frowned, and then shot Miroku a warning look across the fire as he coughed and cleared his throat suggestively. "Ah, well, at least it left my shampoo and toothpaste and toothbrush. Thank kami for that."

"Aw, geez, don't tell me you're goin' off to take another bath," InuYasha immediately complained from where he was lazily sprawled out against the large exposed roots of a tree nearby, his arms supporting his head. "We've only _been_ on the road for a few hours! Ya' can't be _that_ dirty! If ya' ask me, you should be more worried about what we're gonna' eat!"

Kagome arched a brow at him. "InuYasha, you big baby! I think you have been living off ramen way too much lately, mister! Why don't you come to the river with me and catch some fish while I bathe?"

"Eh…?" he choked.

InuYasha's ears went flat and his face turned purple-red at the suggestion while Miroku instantly hopped up to volunteer his 'matchless fishing-skills' – at least until a disgruntled-looking Sango re-introduced the back of his skull to her hirakotsu.

Kagome made a face at the resulting chaos and shook her head in exasperation. "I _meant_ you could go upstream from me, baka! Geez, InuYasha! You're turning into as big a lecher as Miroku!"

"You may take that as a compliment, InuYasha," Miroku announced proudly with a wince as he rubbed the lump on his head.

"I just hope you don't run into Sesshomaru again," Shippou said tactlessly as he sucked on a lollipop, reclining on a lolling Kirara's back. "That guy's scary – and who'd have thought he was a lecher, too? But then he's related to InuYasha, so I guess _that_ makes sense," he added, deadpan.

Kagome went beet red at the reminder that Shippou had overheard the group's early morning discussion about Sesshomaru saving her at the spring several weeks ago.

InuYasha growled and reached out to bop the kit on the head – but a nasty glare from Kagome made him lower his fist…temporarily. As soon as she turned her head, he whacked the kitsune on the back of the head and then took a quick, sliding step away as he looked at the sky and whistled innocently.

Shippou immediately put up a wail and Kagome huffed.

"InuYasha! SIT, SIT, SIT!"

The rest of the gang was enjoying some tea from leaves that Miroku had had tucked away when InuYasha finally dug himself out of the soft, loamy dirt on the forest floor. He stood up, looming over Kagome with the devil in his eyes and spitting out leaves, before collapsing in a resentful crouch nearby – nobody offered _him_ any tea, he was quick to note.

"Stupid bitch," he finally snarled. "Since when did we start talkin' about Sesshomaru, anyway, that rotten bastard?"

Kagome turned her nose up at him as she finished sipping her tea from one of the flat clay saucers Sango carried. "You could at least take a lesson in manners from him sometime!" she sniffed.

"Wha - ? Yeah, right! He's tried to kill us before, remember? And besides that, the lousy prick looks like he wears make-up!"

Miroku snorted with surprised laughter, though he tried to cover it up when Kagome glared at him.

"Don't be dumb, InuYasha! Lots of demons have those kinds of markings!"

"Why, you are correct, Kagome." Miroku said slyly. "In fact, I believe I have seen these very markings appear on a certain ill-tempered hanyou I am acquainted with – "

"You're askin' for it again, monk!" InuYasha threatened, his claws flashing as he jumped up and reached out to grab him by the robes.

"Leave Miroku alone!" Shippou shouted. "I for one think you're just jealous of Sesshomaru because it's obvious he's a lot better looking than you are! I bet even Kagome likes looking at him more than she does _you_, InuYasha! Compared to you, he's actually treated her more like a mate should than _you_ ever have! You're so _mean_!"

Shocked silence greeted the kitsune's words, and just as Kagome was about to open her mouth and sit InuYasha before he really harmed the little fox demon, the hanyou grabbed her around her upper arm and hauled her to her feet, his expression oddly closed as he grabbed her bag.

Noone said a word as InuYasha walked her out of camp and toward the river.

Kagome sighed when he released her at the bank, dropped her bag at her feet, and stormed off toward a break in the water slightly around a bend.

She was drawing her dusty clothes off when a movement caught her eye and she bit her cheek to keep from screeching when she saw InuYasha standing nearby, bare-chested, with his head carefully turned away. That was when she saw he was holding out his white yukata to her, his red haori fisted in his other hand.

"I-InuYasha?" Kagome frowned at him. "What is it?"

He thrust the garment at her. "Take it, will ya? I know you hate putting on dirty clothes after you bathe. You can use this until you wash and dry your other stuff."

Kagome turned a little pink as she shyly took the yukata from his grasp, keeping an eye on his tense profile as he focused his eyes on something far away from her. The fabric was clean, and was still warm from being against his skin as she took it in her hand. She gasped when he grabbed her hand through the fabric, and pulled her close, enveloping her in a crushing embrace, her bare skin against his.

She closed her eyes as her heart thudded heavily against her breastbone. What was he doing?

"Kagome, I just want you to know…no matter what happens, I'll always fight for you. I have a purpose right now, and I…I may not be able to say all the things that I want to, to you, but I'll always protect you. You know that, right?"

Unable to say anything past the lump in her throat, Kagome merely nodded.

InuYasha sighed against her. "I'm…sorry I make you feel bad, Kagome."

She felt her lips tremble as a sob of emotion fought to escape her. She blinked back the tears because she knew he could smell them, and she couldn't take him looking her right in the eye just now.

InuYasha squeezed her tighter, and then let her go and stepped away. By the time she composed her features enough to look at him, he was already walking away, his hair glowing in the last rays of light from the setting sun.

"InuYasha!" Her voice broke a little as she called after him.

He paused, still holding his haori in one hand.

She faltered. "W-what about the fish?" she called, a bittersweet smile tugging at her lips.

InuYasha's head bowed slightly, and then he startled her by looking back at her over his bare shoulder with a smirk that exposed his fangs. His golden eyes glowed as they slowly, deliberately drank in her nearly nude state, and then he gave a low, growling laugh.

"Fuck the fish," he said harshly, before turning back and shrugging into his haori. He seemed to take a deep breath before he took off into the forest at a lope and called back over his shoulder, "I suddenly feel the need to go hunt something! See ya' back at camp!"

Shivering from much more than the cooling evening air, Kagome looked after him with a heavy heart until she couldn't make him out anymore in the gathering darkness. After a while, she shook her head sadly, disrobed, and waded into the river.

* * *

She'd been in here far too long, Kagome thought as she finished washing her hair, but where the air was cool, the water was incredibly warm, and soothing – and to tell the truth, she was really shy about seeing InuYasha again. She still wasn't sure what that whole episode had been all about. Had he been trying to tell her something? Did he…maybe…did he…love her, too?

"You do well to wash away the stench of my brother, miko," a cold voice said bluntly.

Kagome stumbled and almost went under.

'Oh, no! Not him, not again!'

"Wha-what are you doing here!" Kagome shrieked as she threw her arms over her breasts in reflex.

Sesshomaru stood on the bank of the river, holding InuYasha's yukata between his thumb and forefinger as if it was some dirtied thing. He gazed down at her, eyes narrowed against the breeze that was suddenly picking up, the ends of his hair and pelt waving gracefully. "InuYasha is in danger. He has…need of you."

"InuYasha?" Kagome gasped, and then struggled out of the water, suddenly unmindful of her nakedness. She went rushing towards InuYasha's shirt, and pulled it on over her dripping skin. She was already running, working the ties on the shirt as she went, when a powerful arm encircled her ribcage beneath her breasts. Her breath exhaled in a rush as Sesshomaru lifted her off the ground. Kagome kicked wildly, her cries weak and muffled by his hand.

"You silly little fool," he murmured softly into her ear in an almost affectionate manner. "You're much too trusting."

Kagome froze when she realized that the hand covering her mouth should not have been there in the first place. Her eyes widened in shock.  
How had Sesshomaru gotten his arm back, the one that InuYasha had cut off?

_And when had the moon gone blood red?

* * *

_

To be continued…

Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha, or any related characters!

A/N: Sorry about the cliffie, guys. Chapter five is on it's way! Many thanks to everyone for reviewing, and especially for taking the time to let me know _why_ you like it – or dislike it, LOL. I'd like to respond to a few reviewers, but apparently the Microsoft Word program on my new desktop is only a trial, and all my documents are locked – long story short, I'm writing this on someone's borrowed laptop, and things aren't simple at the mo'. Thanks to those of you who sent e-mails reminding me to update. Sometimes I get so caught up in fan art I forget how long it's been since I updated! Hope you had fun with this one, anyway, 'cause I had fun writing it! See ya soon!

D.V. (P.S. 'Centenary' is just another word for centennial, just in case you're wondering! )

* * *


	5. 4 The Bloody Centenary II

* * *

Demon's Night

* * *

Chapter Four – In the Company of Devils: The Bloody Centenary, Part II

* * *

The night was becoming increasingly menacing, Miroku thought grimly as he watched the moon and sky redden overhead. 

He had slowly become aware of it only moments after the sun had set, and the light of day had waned completely. He'd felt rather than seen the shadows of the surrounding mountains creep with otherworldly coldness over the valley the forest lay nestled in.

Something was not right with this particular nightfall, and his ill feelings of foreboding were only intensified by the appearance of the wind demoness Kagura soon after InuYasha and Kagome left.

Even as he stood with Sango, preparing himself to do battle, he found himself wondering if the hellish cast to the sky truly did have anything to do with the arrival of Naraku's foul kin…and if his friends had already fallen prey to some trap nearby.

* * *

InuYasha wasn't as far away from Kagome as he should have been when his sensitive ears picked up what sounded like her muffled shriek. 

Though he immediately turned back to go to her, he couldn't help but roll his eyes.

She was probably just whining about something nibbling her toe, again…

InuYasha smirked. He'd left her alone at her bath for her own good. He knew he had no right to touch her, to want her as badly as he did – but it wouldn't take much more for him to lose himself and take her.

Imagine his surprise when he broke through the undergrowth lining the river bank and saw Sesshomaru with a struggling Kagome tucked into his side.

InuYasha's heart clenched with fear and anger. He charged after his brother with a low growl.

Sesshomaru made him pull up with a clawed hand held casually against Kagome's throat.

"Bastard! Let her go, or I'll rip your fucking head off!" he sneered, drawing his sword.

"I have no time to deal with the likes of you this night, InuYasha. The miko and I were just leaving."

InuYasha brought up Tetsusaiga. "Yeah? Well, it looks to me like she don't wanna' go with you!"

"It matters not what she desires – she will do as I wish."

"Pretty damned sure of yourself ," InuYasha snorted. "What was Father thinking when he sired you? Talk about a wasted effort!"

"Do not shame our sire – his name is your only pride. Without it, you are little better than a beggar to your own kind."

"InuYasha, please - !" Kagome abruptly cut herself off as Sesshomaru's hand tightened around her throat.

"Don't worry, Kagome. He's not takin' you anywhere!"

"Your tongue makes promises you cannot hope to keep, brother. I find humor in how you persist in following her around like a pup."

"Apparently I'm not the only one followin' her around! Why don't you give it up, Sesshomaru? I told you! You're too cold and cruel-hearted for her. She'll never love you! Not like…" InuYasha paused, sending a hesitant, lingering, tender glance at Kagome as he finished, "not like she loves me!"

Kagome's eyes went wide.

InuYasha shifted uncomfortably, knowing he was the center of attention.

"What're you waitin' for, Kagome? Purify his ass!"

Sesshomaru carefully set her aside, and stood before InuYasha with an icy calm.

"She has already tried."

"H-he's right, InuYasha! I can't do it! Something won't let me!"

"Huh?" InuYasha's eyebrows rose. That was when he noticed his brother had two, whole arms once again. What the fuck was going on!

"InuYasha. I had not planned on executing you this night…but if you persist, I can do no less than oblige you." The demon lord lifted his hand before his face, a faint, glowing green energy gleaming from his claw tips.

InuYasha looked at the pitiless, predatory light in his half-brother's eyes and something inside him cringed. He wasn't afraid for himself, but for Kagome. His gaze flicked to her.

"Kagome, run back to the others!"

"N-no! InuYasha!"

"I said, _go_, damn you!" he roared at her, frightening her into movement. He made certain she was running through the trees before he dared to move.

"Listen up, Sesshomaru, I don't know what you're after her for, but I'm gonna' put a stop to it, now!"

Sesshomaru lashed out, suddenly, not with his poison, but with his fist.

InuYasha, head spinning, hit the dirt, and jumped up in time to see Sesshomaru drifting off across the treetops in the direction Kagome had taken.

* * *

Kagome ran until her chest hurt and her throat was raw – when she made it back to the camp, she was horrified to see it destroyed, with no sign of her friends anywhere nearby. 

"Miroku! Sango! Shippou? Where are you?" She tripped over a root in her frantic search, and fell hard to her knees. It was hard to get back up, so hard…

"Miko."

Gasping in fear, Kagome rolled onto her back, only to see Sesshomaru hovering in the air above her. He looked magnificent, his sash and hair trailing wildly around his imposing figure.

"Sesshomaru, why are you doing this? What do you want?" she asked helplessly.

Making no effort to explain his actions, he set foot upon the ground, and reached down to her, and pulled her up and into his arms.

Kagome didn't have the strength to resist…much, anyway.

"_Ses-sho-mar-u!"_ the enraged howl came from directly behind them.

Kagome felt the demon's grip tighten on her for an instant before he once again set her gently aside and turned to face InuYasha.

With a great leap, InuYasha skidded to an impressive halt before him, kicking up a spray of dirt and leaves as he used the point of the transformed Tetsusaiga to halt his momentum.

"Bastard! I told you to leave her alone! I won't let your cruelness touch her!"

Sesshomaru made no other movement than a faint flick of his thumb against the guard of his sword – to unsheathe the deadly Tokijin. The mystical energy of the sword sang out as it was pulled free.

"This Sesshomaru is cruel? You have it wrong, brother. You are the cruel one, pretending an affection you do not feel."

"_She wasn't meant for you!"_ InuYasha snarled, preparing to swing his sword.

His words made something snap inside Sesshomaru, and his eyes flashed blood red as he engaged in the attack with Tokijin.

Kagome rushed in to part them. "No! Don't do this! Something's wrong, here! Something's not – _AAH!" _She cried out as InuYasha's shoulder accidentally caught her chin, and she went flying backwards to land on the scarred ground. She felt the world fade out around her, and lost consciousness even as her mind cried out for InuYasha.

* * *

InuYasha saw Kagome go down, and damned himself for not being more careful. His eyes rounded in horror as he turned to see her laying there, wrapped in only the protection of his shirt, her jaw already beginning to bruise. 

"If you have injured her, I shall make your death long and painful," Sesshomaru shocked him by snarling across the clearing.

"Fuck you! I blame this on you! It's your fault she got hurt!"

Sesshomaru didn't bother with words to make his displeasure known.

* * *

From their vantage point on a rise many yards away, too far for human ears to hear the demons words, a slightly injured Miroku and Sango stood with Shippou and a high-strung Kirara. 

Kagura had flown the moment she'd seen Sesshomaru enter the clearing below, so it was safe to say they had time for a rest – a short one, no doubt as Miroku feared Naraku was coming ever closer.

"I've never seen Sesshomaru so upset before. I wonder if InuYasha said something to disturb him?" Miroku looked on in awe as the two mighty demons fought.

"Do you think?" Sango rolled her eyes, and cried out as Kirara suddenly growled and took off down the slope. "Kirara!"

"We gotta' do something!" cried an agitated Shippou.

"Somehow I do not think InuYasha would appreciate our interference at this – "

"Look! Kagome's down there! Is she hurt!"

Sango gasped. "She looks unconscious!"

"We must go to her," Miroku exclaimed, and the three companions started down the slope after Kirara – only to slide to an abrupt halt as they saw the demon cat crash against something at the bottom.

"What – what is it!" Sango asked, running to the cat's side.

Mirkou looked up and around, and finally straight ahead – to lock gazes with the Lord of the West.

"We cannot pass," Miroku finally said darkly. "Sesshomaru has placed a barrier around us."

"What? No! Kagome!" Shippou raced to the barrier, and bounced right off it again, bruising his nose and his pride in the process.

Sango tried the same, and met with the same problem. "No! Why is he doing this? Is he after the Tetsusaiga again?"

"Somehow I have my doubts," Miroku murmured.

* * *

"Hn. You remain, as ever, the consummate unrepentant show-off, InuYasha," Sesshomaru told the hanyou disdainfully after yet another failed attack. 

Sesshomaru smiled thinly and took his foot off the back of InuYasha's head, leaving the hanyou half-conscious in the dirt, the Tetsusaiga imbedded in a tree several feet away.

"Worry not, little brother. I shall return her when I am through with her."

Sesshomaru was turning away towards Kagome when he felt a slight movement from InuYasha. He looked over to see InuYasha rising again, despite his battle-ravaged state, only this time he was not half-human.

"You will die if you insist on fighting me like this, brother," he told the red-eyed creature before him. "I say this for your sake."

InuYasha, in his transformed demon state, did not show any signs of hearing, or understanding. His eyes, and the jagged purple streaks on his cheeks, glowed as he flung himself forward, his lengthened claws aiming for Sesshomaru's throat.

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed, and he brought up Tokijin to deal a fatal blow.

"Sesshomaru, please, don't!"

Kagome was awake. Sesshomaru drew up on the strike – if he killed the hanyou before her, she would never truly be his.

"_Graaaaah!"_ InuYasha was slavering like a crazed beast as he attacked, and Sesshomaru sheathed Tokijin with two, neat, stylized strokes before he began moving too fast for InuYasha to hit.

He thought to wear the half-breed down, but it soon became obvious InuYasha would not be calmed. When next his brother came near enough to strike, Sesshomaru did so – but as soon as his blow landed, he knew something had gone wrong. InuYasha had been moving towards him too fast, with too much momentum, and along with the strength of his blow…

InuYasha flew through the air and hit the forest ground with a thud, skidding many yards through the carpet of pine needles and dirt before sliding to rest on the soft grass under the bowing branches of an ancient tree.

"_InuYasha!"_ Kagome cried out, tears of fear and pain tumbling from the corners of her eyes as she rushed to the fallen half-demon.

Sesshomaru need not bother with such antics – he had felt the snap of bone as his powerful blow connected with InuYasha's jaw, heard the fateful crack as his brother's head snapped back on his neck with incredible force, seen the shocked light in his crimson-red eyes as life instantly drained from them.

He knew the hanyou was dead.

"_InuYasha!"_

Kagome threw herself down next to him, skinning her knees and drawing blood, but the clearly the pain did not matter to her. When it came to the hanyou, it never did.

Sesshomaru felt his anger rise as a new scent came to his nose.

She was weeping _for him._

"He demeans you, favors another, a being far less worthy, over you, and yet you _weep_ for him?" Sesshomaru barely kept himself from hissing the words as his youkai rose to the fore. He was still furious that she had let InuYasha get away with his verbal abuse of her from earlier in the day.

"It makes this Sesshomaru wonder what measure of violence I could commit upon you, miko, and still receive the compassion of your tears."

When he looked back at her, his expression was once again cold, focused, his bearing noble and self-contained.

"You will follow this Sesshomaru."

Still crying, Kagome sent a desperate glance at the frighteningly still InuYasha, laying in the crimson moonlight.

She still did not realize the crude creature was lifeless…but, Sesshomaru found that he did not wish her to find out. Her unwarranted grief would be an annoying hindrance to his plans for her this night.

"Kagome-sama!"

"Kagome!"

The shouts of her companions on the slope behind him drew the miko's eyes.

Sesshomaru's fingers twitched upon his blade. "Now, miko, or I shall strike him dead where he lay."

Her eyes flashed with anger as she looked at him, and she blinked several times before straightening her back and fisting her hands and walking towards him, each step, though obviously determined, clearly difficult for her because every instinct in her was screaming at her to go back to InuYasha. She was not used to walking away when the hanyou needed her.

Sesshomaru's eyes flashed with determined fire. She _would_ walk away this time.

Miroku watched Kagome walk towards them with Sesshomaru and felt a great surge of fear.

"Don't do this Kagome-sama! I fear he intends to do you much evil!" Miroku shouted, desperately fighting against the barrier, Sango and little Shippou alongside him.

Sesshomaru paused and looked over him with an arched brow. "No more evil than you yourself wish to inflict upon her, monk." With that cryptic statement, he continued walking past them with Kagome, never again sparing them so much as a glance.

For Miroku it took a moment to understand the hidden meaning in the demon lord's words, and when he did, his went wide and panicked, his efforts against the barrier doubling, even though he had little more to give.

"No! _Kagome_!"

Sesshomaru reached for the miko, ignoring the cries behind him.

He held his hand out to her, but she refused to take it – instead, in a sudden fit of temper she slapped it away, and then gasped and winced when he once again grasped her throat in a threatening hold.

He took both her wrists in his one-handed grip and cruelly squeezed them until the tips of his claws bit into the skin.

"You will not recoil from my touch as if it were tainted!" Sesshomaru snapped at her through his fangs. He was still infuriated by the evidence of the depths of her emotions for his undeserving brother.

Kagome slumped against him, her tears soaking the delicate silk of his sleeve as he wrapped his arms around her and they both rose into the night.

He chose to ignore the fact that she twisted her head around to look after the fallen hanyou until the clearing was long from her sight.

* * *

"What did Sesshomaru take Kagome away for?" Shippou asked tearfully as the two disappeared from sight. 

Miroku opened his mouth to explain, but shut it just as fast on a warning glare from Sango.

"I'll explain it to you one day when we can speak man to man," he said instead, reaching out a comforting hand to pat the top of the kitsune's head. What Sesshomaru _really_ wanted Kagome for…it didn't bear thinking about.

"InuYasha! _InuYasha_!" Shippou shook his head as he pounded his fists on the indestructible barrier. "Why won't InuYasha wake up?" he whimpered, leaning his forehead against it in frustration as he stared hard at the unmoving crimson clad form now laying in the shadows across the moonlit clearing.

Over the little kitsune's head, Miroku met Sango's suddenly enlightened glance with his own grim one, and he shook his head even as he fought not to fall to his knees in grief over the friend he instinctively knew they'd lost this night. They had to stay strong for one another – especially since he could sense the presence of Naraku uncomfortably near.

It was better that the young one believe that there was still hope.

* * *

To be continued in Chapter Five - In the Company of Devils: The Bloody Centenary, Part III

* * *

_Many_ Thanks to: 

_Phalon22_ - 'Trust' Naraku? Pfft! Only if he's on doggie-crack, LOL

_Jully123 _– Thank you!

_Leunra _– Nope, it's his _real_ arm!

_Robin's hope_ – Sorry about the cliffhanger. Yep, Sess got both arms back on Demon's Night, because he subconsciously wished it. There'll be a bit more about that in the next chapter. And, I can't help it! Bath scenes are SO fun!

_XSilverShadowsx _–The red moon is just for atmosphere, really. Sesshomaru does have two arms, now.

_inlovewithsesshomaru_ – Thanks so much!

_PrEtTyStUpIdGiRl_ – Gah! Stop the shaking! How can I write with brain damage? (Though it might actually improve it, LOL). Thanks!

_Megan _– Thanks for you encouragment. So glad you enjoyed it.

_Fallen Dragon_ – Many Thanks!

_InnocentDarkSassycat_ – Thank you!

_Hermione _– Thanks! Hope you like this chapter!

_Lyn_ – I will, thanks!

_Cataracta_ – Thank you!

_Triss Skylark_ – I will, thank you!

_Lonewolf-chica_ – I'm so glad you liked the cliffie.

_Arella Hallo_ – Yep. Crap. Cliffhanger. And another one. Crap. LOL! Thanks!

_MacFukamachi _– Ah, you understand the enjoyment of a good cliffhanger, LOL. Thanks for the encouragment! I try really hard to keep everyone in character.

_Storywriter10791_ – Thank you!

_Shadows-insanity_ – Thanks!

_Minkyo _– I will, thank you!

_i-wish-i-was-kagome_ – I wish I was Kagome, too! But I'd never be able to make up my mind with all those hotties running around, LOL. Hope you like the update!

* * *

A/N: Next chapter up soon – I have most of it written already, so it _should_ be up sometime this weekend, or early next week. Just to show I'm not completely mean, here's a little – as yet unedited, mind you – taste of what's coming up next. Please keep in mind that it is subject to changes! I still need to work on scenery and detail, and all that fun stuff. Hope you like it! Later! 

D.V.

* * *

_Preview_

* * *

It wasn't a mating in the usual sense he wanted, he tried to convince himself. He was curious about her. It was desire, and yet, not even that. He would take her body, pleasure her in return for his use of it, and then forget her. He wouldn't allow their involvement to deepen. As if it could. She was human, and therefore, otherwise beneath his notice. He refused to allow himself to fall into the same trap as his father. 

His furious glance was drawn to the pale, slender curve of her neck. He caught the sweet, damp scent of her hair and felt his body tighten.

It was far too late for that nonsense, and he knew it.

"You think of him."

Kagome hid her eyes behind her lashes. "Who?"

"My brother. InuYasha."

"Yes." Kagome didn't bother to deny it.

Sesshomaru looked at her in carefully controlled censure.

"Is it truly so abhorrent, the thought of submitting to me?"

"I-I'm not! I won't, I mean! I don't want you!"

"Do you think InuYasha wants you?"

Kagome stopped panicking long enough to look at him. Something in the tone of his voice had drawn her notice. His tone hadn't changed, but something told her that he was dangerously on edge at the moment…

She was right. His face was blank, but he had an expression in his eyes that Kagome was sure would have frozen a volcano.

"You're…you're just doing this to hurt him. You're _jealous_ of him!"

Despite the deliberate insult, his suddenly coolly composed face showed absolutely nothing – no hint of offence, dislike, and not even annoyance.

"Perhaps, in some small way," he shocked her by admitting. "I do not care enough about InuYasha to wonder if my taking you hurts him or not. It is my…curiosity about you that brought us to this."

"Why are you suddenly so curious about me? You've only tried to kill me a hundred times!"

Sesshomaru tilted his head as he looked at her with a bland, yet slightly rebuking expression. "A large exaggeration on your part, miko," he responded tonelessly.

"So…why?"

"You wish to know why? I have dreamed of you. Of your taste, your scent."

"You-_you've_ dreamed of _me_?" she sounded panicked. She switched tactics, and didn't allow him to respond.

"I don't care what you say! He _won't_ be happy about this! I won't let him feel guilty about this, I'll go to Kaede, and get a spell of forgetting, something – !"

At this his predator's eyes twitched, and then narrowed in speculation. "Hm. Then perhaps I will not allow you to leave in the morning, after all."

Kagome swallowed.

Would there be anything left of her in the morning, anyway?

"He'll come for me! It doesn't matter!"

"Will he?"

"O-of course he will!"

Sesshomaru's already narrowed eyes thinned to gleaming slits. "InuYasha doesn't know how fortunate he is to have you. If you were my mate I'd keep you in our private chambers at all times."

Shaken by the idea, Kagome stared at him. '_In 'our' private chambers? Did he really just say that?'_

"I couldn't allow another male around you without risking his life," Sesshomaru elaborated, not taking his eyes from her for an instant. "It truly is a pity you were not youkai-born."

Kagome nearly bit her tongue in two holding back her response to that, but she'd noticed that far from being annoyed by her little tirades lately, he'd actually seemed amused by them! So, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction…!

"Go on, miko," the tai-youkai murmured. "Say what you wish before you choke upon it."

"Fine! I will, then! I _like_ being human, thanks very much!" Kagome exploded.

"Truly? You have no wish to be immortal?"

"No way. I think immortality would be incredibly boring after a while. I don't see how you demons can stand it! Besides, if being immortal makes you all arrogant, and demanding, and act like you're better than everyone else, I'll definitely pass, thanks!"

Red fires suddenly blazed in the molten gold pools of his eyes, their flames licking over her startled face.

"Come." He held out his hand.

"W-why?"

His eyes narrowed dangerously. "You will come to me. Tonight you have no choice. You must do as you are bidden."

"Hey! I'm not your slave!"

"Your impertinence is staggering." Sesshomaru was becoming angry, but his soft, seductive tone showed no sign of it.

"Just let me go! I need to get back to InuYasha! He could be really hurt!"

"InuYasha will have you for the rest of his existence – he can let me have you for this one night."

"No!"

"You are in danger."

"Of what!"

"Pushing this Sesshomaru too far."

He flipped her easily onto her back, and pressing a muscled thigh between hers, he subdued her struggles.

His body was lean and warm. She felt the hilts of his swords bite into her hip.

"I want you, Kagome…"

Kagome's face caught fire.

"Tend me."

"T-tend you?" Kagome's face twisted in confusion. "You want me to cook for you?"

"Hn. You truly are an innocent, aren't you?" Sesshomaru pulled back a little, one brow arching mockingly.

"I want you to touch me."

Kagome was shocked, but she really did find herself wanting to touch him. Hands shaking, disbelieving, she did as he asked, running hesitant fingertips over his perfect facial features, down his throat – which made him growl warningly – across his silk-clad chest, over the delicate points of his ears.

When she touched his hair, she could have sworn she felt a shiver run through him, but before she could think about it, he'd pushed her hands away.

"Enough."

His head was bent, his hair a concealing wall between them.

Kagome sucked in a shuddering breath.

She knew she was in real trouble when he quietly shifted the swords in his sash to lay on the soft grass beside him…

* * *

_End Preview_

* * *


	6. 5 In The Company of Devils III

Demon's Night

-

_Chapter Five - In the Company of Devils: The Bloody Centenary, Part III_

-

Miroku watched, helpless, as the demoness Kagura returned to the clearing where they were still held prisoner within Lord Sesshomaru's barrier.

The demoness scowled as she beheld the barrier, and Miroku had a sudden, shocking idea -

had Sesshomaru known Naraku was stalking them? Had he placed the barrier around them, not just to keep them from interfering from his theft of Kagome, but to...to _protect_ them?

Of course not, it was foolish to even think so - why would he? He had killed InuYasha, stolen away Kagome - why in the seven hells would he bother to try to protect _them_?

Nothing, not a bit of it, made any sense - ! This night was _made_ of lunacy!

It was then that Naraku made his appearance in the clearing before them, his features covered by the babboon pelt. His eyes could not be seen, but the dark, empty holes staring at them were no less mocking.

Miroku's eyes went cold and hard, and he slammed one already battered fist bruisingly against the barrier in frustration.

"_Naraku!"_

"Ah...the monk," Naraku drawled, and in one swift motion, lifted a hand and swept away the baboon disguise. The shining pelt flew through the air and settled in a milky white puddle several feet away.

Miroku smirked knowingly. "So, with your enemies unable to touch you, you at last feel secure enough to shed your disguise. A 'man' of great confidence, I see - or maybe 'man' is too much of a compliment. Perhaps 'snake' would be more apropos."

Scarlet eyes turned on him, glowing with an unholy inner light.

"I grow tired of your insults, monk, and you and your companions pathetic attempts at vengeance."

Miroku narrowed his eyes as he clenched his gloved hand and fought the urge to strain against the inpenetrable barrier in what he knew would be a vain attempt to get at his life's tormentor.

"Your entire existence is an insult, Naraku! You have only yourself to blame if our acts of vengeance 'annoy' you. Your actions against us beg revenge."

Instead of answering, the half-demon smiled maliciously as his eyes drifted off to focus on the body of InuYasha, still lying where Sesshomaru had left him.

Naraku's dark chuckle of amusement soon turned into a loud, echoing laugh of absolute triumph, a sound which made Miroku long to spill the monster's black blood.

Beside him, Sango let out a soft sound of distress, and began pounding on the barrier with her hiraikotsu, her actions desperate and wild.

"Kohaku!"

Startled, Miroku looked over and saw the boy, her young brother Kohaku, come to a halt nearby, his brown eyes blank as he stood still, watching the situation emotionlessly.

Naraku gave a black chuckle. "Kagura, Kohaku. Slay the taijiya and the _monk_."

"My profession is an admirable one. I'm here for a good reason - I spit out the cryptic sayings, and the insightful diatribes with the vaguely ominous, spiritual overtones. Why must everyone call me 'monk' in that tone of voice as if it is a curse?" Miroku sighed sufferingly under his breath as if it were a complete mystery.

Possessed by Naraku and the demonic strength of the Shikon jewel shard within his back, the cold-eyed boy withdrew his weapon and instantly attacked the barrier.

Kagura, on the other hand, hesitated - but only briefly - before she began her dance of wind blades attack.

Amazingly, the barrier held, but it _was_ shuddering under the relentless onslaught. Miroku was thinking about withdrawing the ofuda and creating a back-up barrier of his own when suddenly the leader of the wolf-demon tribe sped into the clearing.

"Oi, Naraku! Didja' forget what night it was?" Kouga smirked ferally as he straightened from his running crouch, and stood fearlessly before the dark hanyou. Oddly enough, he seemed to be without his bretheren this night - or perhaps he had simply out-run them again. Whatever the reason was, Miroku was almost grateful to see the wolf.

"Kohaku," Naraku purred.

Again, it was all it took to make the boy take on the guise of a cold-blooded killer. Almost instantly the slender young demon-slayer attacked Kouga.

Sango shouted in alarm. "Kouga! Please I beg you, do not hurt him!"

"I'm not gonna' hurt him," Kouga growled loudly when Kohaku's weapon neatly nicked one lean bicep, "I'm gonna' _kill_ him!"

"No, _please_!"

"Kohaku, cease your attack!"

Everyone in the clearing was surprised at the shouted command. All eyes, including Naraku's, which were clouded with fury, turned to look up at the wind demoness still floating upon her feather.

"Kagura," the dark hanyou snarled in warning.

The demoness ignored her creator. "Kohaku," she continued almost maternally, "cease your attack and go to sleep immediately."

"What'd she just say?" Shippou blurted disbelievingly, voicing everyone elses thoughts.

A semblance of coherence returned to the boy's slack features. He stumbled, almost dropped his weapon. "K-Kagura?"

"Sleep now, Kohaku!" The demoness lifted her hand, her red eyes narrowed, and blew on something on her palm. What looked like a hundred tiny white feathers spiraled from her hand through the air, and clouded around the boy's face. Within moments, his eyes closed, and he fell into a boneless heap on the ground.

"Kohaku!" Sango cried out.

Miroku grabbed her hand in a comforting grip.

"You'll die with your master, Wind-Bitch!" Kouga snarled promisingly, pointing at her with a clawed finger, fangs fully bared, his tail bristling. Miroku did not think he had ever before seen the wolf-demon so resemble his four-legged bretheren.

"I think not." Kagura gave an elegant shrug, her face a mask of indifference, but Miroku could see the expression in her crimson eyes was anything but.

"Slaughter him, the bastard deserves it," she coldly drawled. "I care not what becomes of him - just be certain to destroy that black heart of his completely, or he'll be back to plague us again before the dawn."

Kouga looked surprised by her words; and then, slowly, he turned a feral gaze on Naraku...and smiled so chillingly that even Naraku himself took a lengthy leap back.

Naraku was clearly infuriated. Something shimmered in his hand, and suddenly a beating heart came into being, captured tightly within his clawed fingers.

"Kagura, you have betrayed me for the last time!"

The wind-witch looked unimpressed. "Fool. If you were truly so powerful, you would not have allowed me to betray you once! You truly have forgotten what night it is. Crush it into a pulp, it matters not - this night, I am _free_." She threw her head back proudly, midnight hair rustling in the wind. "This night, I remain unaffected, with or without my heart - unlike you, _hanyou_," she spat loathingly.

"_Traitorus, hellborn slut!" _Naraku ground out with a bitter fury, and the next moment he crushed the still-beating heart in his hand into a pulp that squeezed out between his talons and plopped to the grassy plain in deep scarlet spatters.

The lady remained unoffended, Miroku noted with no little curiosity, but then she sniffed and lifted her chin as she produced her deadly fans with a deceptively graceful flick of her wrists.

"I am what you made me - _Master_! Allow me to demonstrate! _Fuujin no Mai!" (A/N: Dance of Wind Blades)_

"Oh, man! I can't believe this is happening!" Shippou yelped, trying to burrow into Sango's neck.

Miroku had to agree. Who could have foretold Naraku's own 'daughter's' betrayal of him?

Predictably, it wasn't long before Kouga joined in the battle - but oddly enough, the savageness of the pair's attack brought Miroku no satisfaction. He didn't know exactly why. Perhaps it was because he was unable to join in. For whatever reason, the unsettling feeling confused him. After travelling all this time with...with InuYasha and the others, he was, in truth, a bit of a retribution specialist...

Miroku didn't get a chance to ponder for very long, as the battle before him unfolded. Naraku had, unsurprisingly, transformed into his massive tentacled form - but between the two enraged youkai, who were clearly not doing anything to hold themselves back, the dark hanyou was taking quite the beating. Although Naraku's 'limbs' continued to grow back at the usual alarming rate, there was something about him that seemed off, as if he were...struggling. His usual cold mask had slipped...and the fierce looks in the youkai's eyes, the unrestrained power of their blows - they were _so_ confident, almost as if they _knew_ they were going to...win.

And then, unbelievably, they _did_.

The destruction of Naraku was an awesome sight, but once again, Miroku did not feel assured by it. Even though he witnessed with his own eyes the utter decimation of his greatest enemy into naught but foul pieces of corrupt energy, he instinctively knew that they had not seen the last of Naraku...

Miroku was drawn out of his dark thoughts by a loud, ferociously angry growl from the wolf demon.

"Grrr...there's nothing here! That bastard! He knew we were gonna' kick his ass! That's why he didn't bring the jewel shards with him!" Kouga complained, kicking the dust. He turned his eyes on the demoness.

"You know where he left them."

The demoness shrugged. "I do not. Do you think he would entrust me with such a thing? I truly do not care about the shikon jewel. I have no use for it."

"You lie!"

"Choose to believe what you wish, mangy wolf. I am taking my leave of you - this night is too precious to waste on the likes of you."

"We will not cross each other this night," Kouga told her grudgingly - very grudgingly - "but know now, the next time I see ya, you'll die in pieces, to be fed to my wolves!"

Kagura slitted her cold eyes at the wolf and smirked evilly. She did not respond as she flew away on her feather, obviously triumphant about having been part of sending Naraku to his dark fate.

Miroku was the only one unsurprised. He could understand why the demoness had led the dark hanyou to his death - it was obvious she loathed Naraku - but he did not understand why she dared, espescially with the great risk of her master surviving and punishing her.

Miroku's eyes narrowed consideringly.

Unless she knew something that the rest of them did not...

What did surprise him was the fact that Kouga had just let her go, especially after her participation in the death of most of his pack.

He shook his head.

Yes, there was very definitely something strange about this whole night.

A sudden tug on his beads drew his attention.

"Sango?" he asked questioningly as she peered at him with something he'd never seen in her eyes before..._hope_.

"Take it off, houshi-sama," she requested with a lovely blush.

Miroku's face lost it's serious expression and his lips curved slyly.

The 'glove', Miroku, the glove!" Sango said through clenched teeth.

Vaguely dissapointed, Miroku had to admit she did have a point. If Naraku was truly gone the kazaana would be absent, too.

"Stand back," he ordered, holding his cursed hand out before him and studying it grimly.

With utmost caution, he removed the beads and slowly unwrapped the folds of the glove...

Miroku was barely conscious of falling to his knees.

"The kazaana! I-it's gone!"

And indeed, it was. The air fracture was no more. The skin of his palm was whole once more, and a danger to none.

With a exhalation of relief, Sango dropped to her knees beside him. After a moment, she tentatively touched him, running her fingers along the sensitive, unmarred skin of his palm, and quite blissfully unaware of what such a simple touch was doing to him.

"It's unfortunate InuYasha will not be there for the wedding," Sango sniffled quietly.

Miroku nodded dumbly, still entranced by the sight of his healed hand being felt up by the demon-slayer.

"Yes, it truly is - _what_!" Deeply jolted, he turned his head to stare at her.

"Did you just - ?"

"Yeah, did you _really_ just - ?" Shippou asked dryly in utter disbelief from Sango's shoulder. Miroku ignored him.

Sango, all the more beautiful for her tears, smiled beautifically and nodded at him.

Miroku was overcome with every kind of emotion in that moment - fear, grief, pain, uncertainty, joy - he couldn't restrain himself. He was free - unless one counted the barrier, of course - and alive, and Sango had finally just agreed to take him as he was - !

He leaned in to kiss her...only to be rudely interrupted by a familiar, gloating, obnoxiously loud voice.

"Oi, dog-crap! I can smell your stench - it stinks of dogs, here! Are you done hidin'? I killed Naraku for ya, you gutless coward! What are you waitin' for? Come out, I'm fresh from a kill an' it's time I finally give you what you deserve! Come an' fight!"

On the inside of the barrier, Miroku gave Sango a small, happy-but-weary smile, chucked her under her chin gently, and then drew himself up painfully, ignoring the suddenly noticeable severe aches of his wounds from his earlier battle with Kagura. He sent the wolf an icy stare.

"InuYasha...is dead."

Almost instantly, the kitsune began to wail, his worst suspiscions at last confirmed.

Sango drew Shippou to her breast and buried her face in his soft fur.

Kouga looked startled for a moment, his dark eyebrows climbing high on his forehead - and then he amazed everyone by throwing back his head and laughing uproariously.

"That weak half-breed!" he exclaimed in his growling voice. "It's still early, and he let Naraku kill him already? Typical! I _thought_ I smelled his filthy half-breed blood when I got here!"

"Enough!" Sango gritted her teeth, and drove to her feet. "How dare you laugh at his death, his pain!"

Kouga was undaunted. He just kept laughing, and he shook his head.

Miroku narrowed his eyes. "For your information, Kouga, InuYasha was not killed by Naraku."

"Eh?" Kouga went silent and looked at him suspiciously. "Is that right? Who killed him, then?"

"Lord Sesshomaru."

"Sesshomaru, huh?" Kouga's expression was uncharacteristically somber as he sniffed the air and turned to walk twoards the tree under which InuYasha's still form lay.

"Leave him be!" Sango cried out, pushing against the barrier again.

Miroku caught her in an arm. "Sango...there's nothing more he can do to harm him. Please do not injure yourself," he said gently.

Sango turned her head to look into his eyes, and then further shocked a tearful Shippou by throwing herself into Miroku's arms. Her bountiful breasts pushed against his chest in an all-too-inviting manner that boded ill indeed for his peace of mind.

"_Oh, Miroku!"_

Miroku sighed. Oh, but to hear her breathe his name in such a way - !

_'What are you thinking, man? This is no time to have unclean thoughts about Sango! Your best friend just died! You are an unworthy monk! For shame!' _

Ah, but he couldn't help it. He loved _women_. He loved _sex_. He loved finding new ways to make their bodies fit together, and he wanted to show them to his dearest Sango...but at his center there truly was a core of honor, and right now he knew that she needed the warmth of his tight embrace, more than he needed her tight warmth embracing his cock...

Said member jumped and surged eagerly at the stray naughty thought, and Miroku blanched.

_'Whoa, down boy...'_

He was almost in tears!

_'Oh, cursed honor! You are cheating me out of _so_ many things - !'_

Despite an intense desire to squirm against the lithe, warm body held so close against him, Miroku held himself very still - admirably so, he thought, given the extreme circumstances - until he felt the hot wash of her tears against his bare throat. He gave in with a trembling, inward groan, and unceremoniously dropped his staff to enfold her and Shippou fully in his arms. Sango only clung harder to him, her sobs of grief nearly inciting his own. A bittersweet sorrow gathered in his chest.

_'InuYasha...'_

"No one should have to suffer death by the hand of their only family," Kouga surprised them all by saying a few quiet moments later as he slowly rose from his kneeling position next to the hanyou. He stood in the red moonlight and put his hands on his hips as he looked the lifeless inu-youkai over once more.

"Oh, well," he sighed roughly. "Maybe when he wakes up, he'll somehow remember to steer clear of his brother until he can learn to handle himself properly, the stupid mutt."

His eyes burning with unshed tears, Miroku lifted his head from the heaven-sent comfort of Sango's scented locks, and slowly blinked at the wolf-demon. Twice.

"Wha-?" Even Shippou stopped crying long enough to look up at the wolf.

"What do you mean 'when he wakes'?" Sango shouted, making Miroku wince. "He's DEAD, you fool! Are you insane!"

Kouga gave her a half-annoyed, half-pitying glance, and waved her words off. "You really don't know what night it is, do ya'? Guess I can't hold it against ya, seein' as you're just human, an' all. Not _supposed_ to know, after all..."

"What do you mean?" Miroku demanded. He recalled Kouga saying something about 'this night' to Naraku when he'd first arrived, and then Kagura...

Kouga looked impatient. "Listen, it's a secret among demon-kind. It'll all be over in the morning, though, so I guess there's no real harm in tellin' ya."

"What do you mean, it will all be over?"

"I mean, ya won't remember any of this. The Cleansing Sun'll rise, and everything will go back to normal. You humans will wake up and it'll just be another day to ya." He gave a suffering sigh at their mixed looks of confusion.

"Look, it's Demon's Night. Every hundred years, the red moon rises, and for one night, any full-blooded youkai can do whatever it desires - but only for that one night. When the dawn comes, everything goes back to the way it was - wrongs will be righted, stolen items returned, property repaired - " he nodded toward InuYasha "- and anyone killed on that night will be resurrected. Like I said, just like nothin' ever happened. Human's and hanyou's don't have any power on this night, and they don't remember what has happened, either. It's just a bit of harmless fun for us."

"Harmless fun?" Sango growled, eyes turning black with rage.

"Wait, Sango." Miroku narrowed his eyes on the wolf. "The dead will be resurrected, you said. That means that Naraku will be able to return as well." He looked at his now whole-hand grimly.

Kouga snorted, oblivious to the undercurrent. He flexed his claws at he looked at the blood-red moon overhead. "Yeah. Unfortunately."

Miroku sighed, his regret soul-deep as he looked into the sorrow-filled eyes of Sango. "_Very_ unfortunately."

The demon-slayer smiled tremulously and reached out to squeeze his hands in hers. Her dissapointment was evident.

She turned to Kouga.

"Kouga-sama?"

The wolf blinked, not used to being addressed in such a manner. "Yeah?"

"Will you do me the favor of watching over my young brother this night?"

Kouga looked reluctant, but his sense of honor made him agree. "I will."

Sango bowed deeply. "Thank you."

Shippou perked up. "Hey! _I'm _a full demon! That means I'll get to remember all of this even when you guys don't! Oh!" The kitsune began bouncing up and down excitedly. "I can just wish for Kagome to be safe, can't I?"

Kouga growled at the kit, making him grab Miroku's robes tighter.

"You can't participate, yet, you're too young. You'll hafta' mature first - ya don't even have full control over your powers, yet. You'll keep your trap shut about all this, too, after it's over...if ya know what's good for ya, runt. Human's don't know for a reason, got it?"

Despite looking extremely disheartened, Shippou shuddered and gulped. "I p-promise I won't tell!" he nodded frantically.

Kouga gave a short nod. "Good. Now that this shit with Naraku is over - for the night, at least - I can get down to what I'm really after in the first place."

"By the way - where IS Kagome?" he looked around pointedly.

Miroku and Sango shared worried glances. How to tell him...?

Shippou had no such qualms.

Obviously feeling better about finding out that the night would end with no lingering ills, Shippou matter-of-factly chirped between long yawns, "Oh, Sesshomaru ran off with her. But it doesn't matter now, does it? InuYasha will be okay, Kagome will come back - I mean, it'll all be over in the morning, right?"

And then the little kit hopped down from Sango's shoulder, and with nary a goodnight to anyone, wriggled to an unconcerned rest beside Kirara and immediately dropped into a deep sleep.

-

Far away, Kouga's roar of outrage could be heard - it shook the forest, and disturbed even the most blood-thirsty of the frolicking demons.

"_HE WHAAAAT!"_

-

Miroku was glad that the boy Kohaku was unconscious - he likely would have gotten himself killed trying to fight the incensed wolf demon prowling the circumference of the barrier.

Kouga was pacing the clearing restlessly, violence emanating from every pore. He was disturbingly feral, now, and his growl was so pronounced throughout his speech that he was barely able to catch his every other word. It was obvious Kouga was on the edge of something as his words became ever more garbled and inarticulate.

"I can't wish for her back!" He held his head in his clawed hands, fingers buried in his wild hair as he stared wide-eyed and panting at the ground between his feet.

" That ..._grrr_...sack-sniffing..._garrrhhh_...son-of-a-bitch piece of dog-shit has some kind of fucking barrier around them! _Grrrrrr_! She was supposed to be _MINE_! Might as well be a holy-barrier for all I can sense of them - _FUUUUUCK_!" He pulled at his hair in frustration as he threw his head back.

Sango was hanging on his arm, and Miroku looked down at her with a small, knowing smirk.

"Indeed."

Sango flushed uncomfortably and shoved a sharp elbow between his ribs, making him wince. "Houshi-sama!" she hissed in consternation.

Shippou rolled over in his sleep against Kirara, muttering about 'perverts', and 'quiet'.

Kouga, apparently hearing Miroku's quiet comment, turned on him and snarled, _"Whadumeanbythatmonk!"_

Unalarmed by the slavering wolf - who _was_ on the other side of the barrier, after all - Miroku sighed and closed his eyes, his expression faintly ashamed.

"Why nothing at all. You must have misheard me. I was merely commenting on Sango's cruelstatement that my priest's robes have a tendency to make my ass look fat."

"Ugh! Miro-ku!" Sango turned beet red and hid her face in her hands.

Kouga's eyes bulged.

"Yes, it is an unfortunate condition, but perhaps you might aid me in removing them, later, Sango?" he suggested, in all seriousness. "Though I assure you, sight-unseen, my ass IS perfect in every way, and indeed, you _could_ bounce a coin off - "

"MIROKU!" Sango shrieked, hefting her weapon.

Miroku cringed. "No, wait! Honestly, I was only trying to distract Kouga from the fact that Lord Sesshomaru is proably defiling our dearest Kagome as we speak! Is it my fault he is proving so difficult to console?"

The silence was deafening.

Sango groaned in utter frustration.

Kouga gave Miroku a crazy, wild-eyed look which made the monk thankful to be behind a barrier, and threw back his head, howling.

"_KAGOOO-MMMEEE!"_

-

After Kouga had regained a semblance of control, he was true to his word in caring for Kohaku for the remainder of the cursed night, and sped off with the boy to find a safer place to watch over him in.

The wolf's face was dark and unreadable as he left, but Miroku knew the knowledge that Sesshomaru had taken his intended mate had gutted him. Had he been in a similar situation with Sango, he knew he would feel the same. The thought of another man taking her, too, left him...inconsolable.

His violet irises shot to the corners of his eyes, and he looked the demon-slayer over with what some might deem 'evil' intent.

_Speaking of..._

Miroku turned to Sango, a suddenly serious look on his handsome features. "Sango?"

"Houshi-sama - I mean, Miroku?" She blushed prettily. She seemed to be excruciatingly aware that they were now - well, mostly - alone.

"What is it?"

"Since none of us will recall this in the morning, Kohaku is in Kouga's care, and Shippou is sleeping so soundly...mightn't we - ?"

Sango snorted. "You can dream!" she retorted.

Miroku's eyes immediately glazed over.

She whacked the drooling monk. "I said 'dream', not _hallucinate_, you...you _depraved reprobate_!"

Miroku's answering smirk was deceptively indolent. He sighed with exaggerated patience, his eyes twinkling as he bent ever closer.

"Really, Sango, dearest, I am merely a monk - nay, a _man_ - with a flaw. A weakness for beautiful women - one in particular." He leaned down to whisper something deliciously wicked in her ear.

Sango's right eye twitched, and a vein popped out on her forehead.

"Oh, but what's this? Your color seems extremely high - and your breathing is becoming very erratic. Perhaps I should check your heartbeat." Miroku knelt on one knee and laid his head against her chest with a blissful sigh to 'listen'.

Sango stepped back, and Miroku almost fell over.

"_Are you trying to suffocate me!"_

"Actually, I was trying to suffocate myself," the monk murmured wryly.

Sango turned crimson and her hand went flying. The slap echoed across the clearing.

"_H-HENTAI!"_

Duly chastened, but not quite out of the game yet, Miroku rubbed his blistering hot cheek. "Ahem. I see. Is that a no to my offer? Because I must tell you, it is one of my more, ah..._prominent_ talents, one I excel at. Indeed, it is one of my greatest achievements." He frowned, and thoughtfully scratched at his chin. "_Bu-ut, _if you are uncomfortable with that, I could always just - "

:whisper, whisper:

Sango's eyes went incredibly wide, but Miroku trudged on, taking the opportunity to feast his eyes on her chest, and wishing that her slayers uniform showed more cleavage. He knew she was still too far from her goals to allow herself to accept him.

After all, why would she want him? He was going to die one day soon, and he had absolutely nothing of value to offer her. But this night was special. Thus, even though he was probably only setting himself up for a night of sheer misery in a hell of his own making, he had to take that chance...

"- because, after all, against all odds on this night of tragedy, we are safe and well. We _should_ celebrate. Even if we do somehow remember, I promise you my..._utmost_ discretion," the monk finished in a seductive purr, hand sliding down to give her rump a thorough squeeze, fingers slipping deep, slipping someplace they shouldn't have...

-

"_Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Miro-ku! How can you even _think_ of that right now? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! You utter pervert!"_

"Hush, Sango! Please, you are destroying my exalted image. Not so loudly. Someone may hear."

"_MIROKU!"_

"W-wait, Sango! Dearest! Not that! Please! It was just a suggestion! What if I just 'kiss' you and promise NOT to molest you with my tongue! Sango? _Sango! GYA-AH_!"

"Sleep well, Monk!"

_THUD!_

-

To be Continued

-

A/N: Well, it took long enough, didn't it? Damn it. Anyway, I know, I know, Sesshomaru and Kagome weren't even IN this chapter - and after you guys waited so patiently, too - I should be shot. But, not to worry, the next chapter - in fact, almost the _entire_ _story_ - is nearly complete already. I hope to post the last part of _The Bloody Centenary _chapters - which has a lemon, so people squeamish about the Sess-Kag pairing _(and by the way, why are you even reading this far_!) should be warned and stray far away - very soon. There will be a few more after that before the actual end. This wasn't really meant to be a loooong fic. Thanks to any and all who have reviewed - but once again, PLEASE, if you don't like the pairing, don't bother to read or review. Criticism is welcome, but if it isn't geared twoard suggestions on how to help my writing improve, they're just Flames, and a waste of your time and mine. That said, I truly hope you guys enjoy the rest of the story, and I will try to get the next part up quickly. Thanks!

- Dash

-


	7. 6 In The Company Of Devils IV

Demon's Night

-

A/N: This is the '_CLEAN VERSION' _of this chapter, it has been edited. The un-edited - and sadly, still un-corrected - version is posted at Media/Miner/./org, under the same title, and the pename Vanvliet. It IS rated 'NC-17'. (Please do not read if you are underage)!

Oh, one last thing - I DO know that in the first chapter, where I mentioned the lady from the _'The Woman Who Loved Sesshomaru' _episode, her name is pronounced 'Sara'. I saw her referred to as 'Lady Soluo' at some point, and I just thought that was prettier than 'Sara'. (No offense to anyone named Sara, LOL). So there's the why. Just thought I'd take a moment to explain that. Thanks a lot to everyone who reviewed, e-mailed, left feedback - I really appreciate you. Okay, so this is it. **Remember** - PLEASE don't read the un-edited version if you are underaged. Thanks for reading!

-

_Chapter Six - In the Company of Devils: The Bloody Centenary, Part IV_

-

This part of the forest was far too dark and far too quiet.

While Kagome was happy to be on the ground again, she suddenly found herself wishing they were still on the move. At least then she wouldn't have to be faced with an - apparently - lustful Sesshomaru! Could this night get any weirder!

_'Ugh, _why_ did I ask..?'_

She stared at the demon in utter disbelief. Being this close to him was so unnerving - !

"Remove your clothing. Do not make me repeat myself." He lifted a sharply clawed hand to the front of her - InuYasha's - yukata and slit the ties with no effort at all.

Kagome grabbed at the suddenly gaping edges. "Hey! Don't touch me!" she yelped.

He growled low in his throat as his eyes flashed, and he gripped the yukata in a fist at the base of her throat, and drew her dangerously close. Her naked toe-tips barely touched the ground. "You forget your place."

Sesshomaru crowded her against a tree, his body _touching_ her.

"This," he gave the fistful of yukata a fierce tug, nearly ripping the seams, "it belongs to _InuYasha_. You will remove it. I command you to."

"I won't! Get over yourself!"

He almost glowered at her. He moved his face close to hers.

"You are being most difficult."

Kagome shook her head furiously, wishing she had her bow and arrows. _He_ thought _she_ was being difficult? No kidding!

"Why are you doing this!"

Sesshomaru didn't answer, but the look in his eyes made her squirm. It was almost as if he was willing her to do something.

The scary thing was, she felt oddly compelled to do that something!

"S-stop looking at me like that and say something!" she demanded, nervously reaching up with one hand to push her hair behind her ears. It seemed like a stupid thing to do in such a moment, but the simple gesture helped distract her and keep her sane. The way he was staring at her, with that faint air of - what? _- expectation._.? It was driving her out of her skin!

"If you don't stop it, I'm going to start thinking you're i-in love with me!"

Sesshomaru didn't move - he didn't blink. His entire body went even more still at her words, if that was possible. His eyes were still locked on hers, but she couldn't detect even a flicker of response in the ageless golden depths.

"What? _Are_ you in...love with me?" Her cheeks almost incinerated themselves when she blurted that bit of nonsense. It was like ripping off a bandage, and it made her wince. It was a question that _had_ to be asked, had practically _begged_ to be asked. Her heartbeat came hard and heavy as she waited for his response. Knowing Sesshomaru, she'd probably just insulted him in the worst kind of way. He'd probably kill her for even suggesting that he loved a human.

Again, he said nothing.

Kagome gasped at the impossible insinuation. "I-I can't...believe that!"

"Can you not?"

Kagome whirled away from him, slipping away from between his hard, warm body and the cold, rough tree trunk.

Sesshomaru, in love with _her_! She was dreaming again, she had to be!

"Do not turn from me."

"No. No, no, _no_! This - this is NOT happening. You don't love me! You're - you're _Sesshomaru_! You're cold, a-and distant, and...and you _can't _love me! Y-you just can't!" she cried.

"Hn. You seem to think you know me so well, miko," he murmured softly, with no trace of emotion. "Presumptuous of you, when you have spent mere minutes in my company."

Torn between curiosity and running until her lungs exploded, Kagome peeked at him. He was...beautiful - a perfect mix of nobility and cruelty.

And...

_He wanted her._

Kagome's breath caught in her throat.

_Sesshomaru really _did_ want her!_

"Oh, Kami-sama..." she moaned weakly. It should be illegal for a man to look like he did. He was so...so...just 'so' something or other that it made her _hurt_! And that, in turn, made her feel guilty about InuYasha. Was he alright? What about the others?

_'Oh, I so need to be rescued! Just one more time! Miroku, Kouga? Sango? This would be a great time to make a heroic entrance!' _she frantically sing-songed inside her head.

_Geez! Where was InuYasha when you needed him!_

"Breathe."

Kagome looked over at him at the command, and automatically took a huge gulp of air - which she promptly let out again in panic as he stepped towards her again. She choked and ended up having a coughing fit.

_'Great, cough all over him and maybe he'll get so disgusted he'll go away!' _she thought frantically.

"What ails you, miko?

Instead of being disgusted, the great demon simply reached out to take her hand away from her mouth and trapped her fingers within the delicate-but-steely strength of his. She found herself numbly stumbling along behind him for a few minutes, staring at her hand clasped in his, still clutching the yukata closed until he stopped again and bade her to kneel alongside a small, trickling brook.

To her eternal shock, he proceeded to dip one hand in the clear, sparkling water, and lifted a cupped, dripping palm to her lips, claws carefully extended away from her skin.

"Drink," he murmured.

Kagome was too entranced to turn away. It felt like such an intimate, impossible thing, sipping water from his hand. It was also really embarrassing, trying to drink it without touching him - her tongue innocently slipped out to capture the drops escaping her lips, and she accidentally tasted his skin, warm through the cool water. She drew back, raising the sleeve of the yukata to press trembling lips against it on the pretense of drying them. Her tongue tingled where it had touched his hand.

Unable to meet his eyes, she watched as his hand slowly clenched into a fist, the remaining water squeezing from between his fingers to catch the red moonlight as it trickled to the ground. The droplets looked like little searing flashes of fire just before they dissapeared into the grass.

For a long moment, the only sound was the faint chirping of crickets, the soft murmur of the breeze, and the bubbling trickle of the small brook at their feet.

Kagome tried to concentrate on calming her heartbeat; on how the soft, mossy ground felt beneath her feet. She hadn't missed the way his tall, lean body had tensed when she'd brushed her tongue against his hand. She was rooted to the ground - she couldn't move, or speak. She could feel his gaze on her, slowly trailing over her body, and her physical reaction to it was terrifying. Goosebumps rose up all over her skin, and her hands and the soles of her feet went hot and cold at the same time.

Unable to stop herself, she dared a peek up at him through her lashes, only to see him staring right back at her.

Sesshomaru caught her glance and took a silent step forward, gently shaking his mane of hair back over one shoulder. He slowly lifted a hand to touch her face, and she thought she might flinch away - but his fingers stopped short of touching her skin.

Kagome looked at him, surprised, and saw one eyebrow raise mockingly. She began to frown, and that was when he did it. Skimmed his fingertips across her cheekbone, just the barest contact of his skin against hers, and she closed her eyes and shuddered at the devastating effect it had on her.

She jerked away.

"L-listen, Sesshomaru-sama. I don't really know how, um, demons do this, uh, sort of...thing, but with humans, it's...well, guys who _love_ girls don't 'normally' , uh, kidnap them and then, _you_ _know_...you know?" She made an awkward motion with her hands. "Besides...a girl needs to _matter_ to the man she 's...she's... _with_, and I - I don't matter to you. You claim to love me, but you don't even know me."

"Once again, you presume much." Sesshomaru looked angry for a moment.

"B-but you _don't! _You can't, not really! Like you said, we've barely been within twenty meters of each other the whole time I've been here! Um...I mean...that is to say..."

Kagome trailed off uncomfortably.

Sesshomaru merely stared at her.

"Y-you were wrong to steal me away from my friends like that!" she quickly sputtered, pointing a finger at him, clenching the yukata closed with the other.

"You've got some nerve, mister...!"

Sesshomaru barely lifted one eyebrow in response, and Kagome's shoulders slumped in defeat.

Oh, who was she trying to kid? Sesshomaru would never admit to doing anything wrong, let alone apologize.

Meanwhile, Sesshomaru's already perfect pose went rigid as he sensed a lower-level youkai coming into the area.

He did not like the scent of this one. It was moving fast, coming too close...and...ah, there it was. It was bringing along a 'companion' as well.

"Miko," he said with quiet authority, interrupting Kagome's quiet rant.

"Listen, for the last time - I AM NOT TAKING MY CLOTHES OFF!" she shouted defiantly.

"Duck."

Kagome's eyes widened as she saw him draw a sword from one of the sheathe's at his hip. She was totally confused.

"Huh? Duck?"

Then she screamed as he swung the sword at her in a mighty arc, and she hit the ground in self-preservation, shaking in reaction as she heard the sword make contact with something above and just slightly behind her. She heard a sickening crunch, and an unintelligible scream from a non-human throat. She cringed on the forest floor, trying to hide in the cool darkness of the waist-tall grass as she waited for the inevitable nasty warm goo to splash down over her - but after a moment, she realized the demon Sesshomaru killed must have simply disintegrated...and wasn't she thankful for that!

Kagome's relief came too soon, for she was just beginning to relax and pick herself up off the ground when something else arrived with a gnashing of prominent teeth and tusks behind her and snatched her up around the waist, holding her against it as a shield so that Sesshomaru couldn't attack it.

Kagome's nose wrinkled and she nearly gagged in disgust as she caught the rotten scent of the thing gripping her. If she hadn't been able to tell what was holding her hostage by sight, she could tell just by it's rancid scent - a man-eating boar youkai held her! And what she was smelling was undoubtedly the decaying remains of it's last victim clinging in gore-like shreds to it's sharp, thick, disease-blackened teeth!

_Ewwwww!_

"Worthless, stinking dog!" The boar spat roughly, giving Kagome a harsh tug. "You killed my mate while I was still in rut - so I will take yours!"

Kagome blinked through the streams of stinging tears flowing from her eyes - the stench of the boar was distracting and overwhelming, but she could still hear what it was saying.

"Mate? Huh? I'm _not_ his - "

"I'll make certain she bears my clan a new litter before I let them eat her alive for their first meal! The ass and loin especially, of female humans, are a great delicacy!" the boar snarled in a saliva-dripping garble.

Kagome winced as it's spittle landed in a disgusting glob on her throat. Shivering in revulsion, she turned her head and tried very hard to ignore it - oh, but it was _slowly_ sliding down inside the collar of the yukata, the night air chilling it as it went - ! _It was incredibly foul! Gross_!

"It is to be a violation, then?" the tai-youkai interrupted smoothly. "I see." Sesshomaru looked at Kagome, his eyebrow arched mockingly.

"Shall it be me, or this low demon? What outcome do you favor, miko?"

"T-that's not any kind of a choice!" Kagome turned bright red and squirmed in the boar-demon's crushing, cloven-hoofed grip.

"Hn. You are correct - but at least I will not devour you after. Perhaps during," he amended coolly, "but you will be too mindless with pleasure to care."

Kagome choked on her amazement. Was _Sesshomaru_ trying to make a joke!

"Y-you - !"

His molten eyes narrowed. "You may begin screaming now, if you wish."

Tired of waiting, the demon roared and attacked. His grip tightened on Kagome, and she gave a breathless little cry of pain.

He didn't speak, but the golden sunbursts in Sesshomaru's eyes flared at the tiny sound.

The next thing Kagome knew, her hot cheek was pressed against the cold, hard plate of his armor, her wide eyes staring at one of the wicked spikes protruding from his chest a mere inch from her.

Sesshomaru held her for a moment, then, before she could regain her bearings, he let loose and stepped away. He still had his Toukijin in hand, and he slashed the blade through the air once, with incredible speed, flinging the corrupted blood from it's gleaming surface, before neatly re-sheathing it at his side. Then he calmly turned and began walking away from her, further into the forest, his long hair caressing the backs of his knees, his graceful, lean body marking a trail through the tall, gently swaying grass as the blood moon cast leafy silhouettes across his form.

Kagome's heart jumped. She was shaking so hard she could barely stand. What, was he just going to leave her here? In this dark, youkai-infested forest? _Alone_?

Scrambling up, she ran after him.

"Hey!"

-

Sesshomaru was furious. He had not sensed the two boar-youkai in time to prepare for Kagome's safety. He was not a being who allowed himself to be taken off-guard very often.

"Hey! _Wait_!"

"We must keep moving for now. It is too dangerous here."

"Why? You killed those boar youkai - !"

"They are not dead."

"Wha- "

"They will return." His words carried the typical bite of an iceberg.

"Huh - ? Those - things are gonna' come back! But how - "

"They will not harm you. I will slay any creature that tries to claim what is mine."

Kagome finally stopped wondering how the heck those boar demons could possibly return when she noticed the tall, silent dog demon staring at her with strange intent.

"Eh? _Eeek_! Don't touch me!" Kagome threw her hands up and started backing away, babbling wildly.

"Really, stop it, now, I'm serious! You don't really _want_ to kiss me, you know, y-you're just one of those guys I read about who are...are...who want to do _'it_', because you just killed those demons and death makes you, uh...uh..." oh, she didn't want to say it, but she couldn't think of another, more _genteel_ word, and her face turned blood red as she finished in a tiny, very weak whisper, "'horny'?"

Kagome flinched and pressed her fingers to her lips. She almost died! Had she really said _that_ _word_ out-loud?

"Inu-youkai do not have horns," Sesshomaru told her coolly, looking both faintly insulted and a little puzzled as he grabbed her hands and pulled her to him with one effortless tug.

Kagome squeezed her eyes shut tight and held her breath as he lowered his perfect visage towards her.

Ew, ew, it was _Sesshomaru_, it was _Sesshomaru_ kissing her! She couldn't stand it, it was wrong, so wrong, could anything be more wrong than...

Sesshomaru..._kissing_...

Oh, _wow_.

It was...she'd never felt anything like it, before. It was soft, warm, and wet...and he tasted like...like nothing she'd ever experienced before.

He still held her hands clamped in one of his own, and she made a sound in her throat that she'd never made before in her entire life when she instinctively tried to reach up and touch his hair, and couldn't.

He responded by turning his head just so, and deepening the mesmerizing, knee-weakening stroke of his tongue even further. As with his skill in battle, not one movement was a wasted action.

She was so focused on his sweet-slightly-metallic taste that she barely noticed his hand moving...she gasped, and he sucked on her tongue as her world narrowed down to a pin-point of pleasure focused on her chest. He was lazily flicking the point of her bare left breast with a smooth, clawed finger, and the ache she hadn't even been aware of expanded massively in her lower abdomen. It made her feel...hungry.

Another helplessly frustratated sound escaped her throat, and then she was kissing him back, opening her lips wider, the tip of her tongue sliding against the silky sides of his, finding that spot of sweetness at the base of his tongue.

He growled lowly as she surged against him, and the sound jolted her back to her senses. Her eyes flew wide open.

She - Kagome Higurashi - was kissing _SESSHOMARU_! With...with _tongue_!

And he...he had his hand inside the open yukata, was touching her...touching her _breast_, and she...she _LIKED_ it!

_Liked it, heck, she wanted to _devour_ him!_

"Oh!" Gasping for air, Kagome flung herself back, and whirled away, hiding her hot face ashamedly behind the fall of her hair.

_Mmmm, it actually _hurt_ to stop touching him! It _hurt

What was wrong with her!

"_What did you do to me!"_

When she finally managed to dare a peek back at him, she could tell he hadn't moved - he was still standing in the same position, perfectly still, watching her, though she couldn't see his eyes in the dark shadow cast across them by his hair. His lips were slightly open, and she could see just a hint of the tips of his fangs, but other than that, she couldn't tell that he'd been affected by the kiss at all. He wasn't even _breathing_ hard!

"Just what _was_ that?" she suddenly demanded in a loud shout. She was too frustrated, too innocent, too shocked to know how to act anything but angry.

"What did you think you were doing! Is that truly what you took me away for? Did you really think I would just...just go along with it? Did you really think I would just...just do _that_, with _you_, because you wanted me to? Oh, yeah, I forgot, you're the freaking Lord of the Western Lands, aren't you? You're not satisfied with that, though, are you, no, you hafta' be lord and master of everyone, and everything you survey - "

"Not everyone, miko." Sesshomaru cut her off, grabbing her chin in his hand and tilting her head backwards until she had no choice but to look into his his flashing eyes now.

"Only. You."

With that spoken, Sesshomaru turned around again, and continued walking onward.

Kagome was so stunned she almost got left behind. Her heart was beating so hard and fast that it hurt. With a gasp, she started after him, tugging the yukata tightly closed.

"H-hey! Y-you don't just go around - _groping_ people like that!" she stuttered.

This, surprisingly, actually provoked a response from the almighty ice-prince.

"Hn. This Sesshomaru does not 'grope'," drifted back to her.

Kagome was about to wildly debate that point when suddenly a very familiar voice sounded from overhead.

"Oh, Lord Sesshomaru. Kidnapping the miko, I see. You're such a bad man. Oh, yes, you _are_ bad," Kagura purred. "I always recognize my own kind, you see. But why would you ever want to spend this night with the likes of _her_?"

-

Frowning angrily, Kagome crossed her arms over her chest and glared upward at what had to be the absolute _worst_ of Naraku's detachments.

"Heh! Why would he want to spend it with the likes of 'you'?" she blurted, flustered by the sudden jealousy rushing through her. It wasn't like her to be so unforgiveably catty.

"What, you think everyone can't tell you've got the hots for him? Geez, you are so obvious!"

Kagura didn't look at all offended by her uncharacteristically catty words. In fact, she only smiled, a bittersweet emotion in the sparkling ruby depths of her eyes...

-

"Being so close to such a fine specimen of demon has already addled your wits, I see," the wind demoness drawled to the little miko, her eyes turning to look at Sesshomaru with undisguised desire.

He did not return the favor.

Kagura smiled bitterly. "Never fear, my lord. I have not survived so long only to die in a futile struggle for your attentions. I will have my freedom no matter the cost. Your human is safe from me...this night."

Sesshomaru didn't bother with a response, which was telling in-and-of itself, but Kagura was feeling bravely confident. To her, death was as commonplace as life, and being so near the fine and strong demon lord was well worth any risk.

At any rate, if she didn't have hope, she would lose her senses completely, living with a creature such as Naraku.

"I could almost envy you, girl." Kagura sighed lustfully as she regarded Sesshomaru's moon-bright countenance, and then turned her suddenly spiteful gaze back on Kagome.

"This pretty mess isn't real, you know. None of it." Her noble voice reeked with the tones of vengeance as she narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin.

"Do not set your silly heart on him. Don't expect him to do right by you by the light of day. He can be cruel well beyond anything you can imagine. It seems that tenderness does not come as easy to him as his beauty." Kagura pursed her lips as she sent the great demon a slightly mocking glance.

"Kagura." Sesshomaru spoke her name lowly, and without inflection, but it seemed to work better than a blow in catching the detachment's attention.

"I know, my unforgiving lord. Be gone if I wish to tarry longer in the land of the living." Kagura regarded the tai-youkai with a longing, almost fond glance, before a gust of wind lifted her feather higher into the dark crimson sky.

"I would say to not bother giving your best to the un-appreciative wretch, but we both know you bear the curse of perfection, don't we...Sesshomaru-sama?" she purred with an hollow laugh before she vanished into the night.

-

"Just what was _that_ supposed to mean? That witch! Oh, Kami-sama...have you...did you - ?"

Sesshomaru's golden eyes flamed beneath the dark slashes of his lashes. _Now_, he seemed offended.

"Right, sorry, none of my business." Kagome laughed nervously, waving her hand.

Sesshomaru arched a brow.

Kagome's laughter dwindled off to nothing.

Watching Kagome as a strong night breeze blew up, Sesshomaru lifted a hand to push the delicate fur of his pelt from where it brushed against his jaw line.

Something...was pinioning his chest. He filled his lungs and expelled the swollen ache in his chest into the air.

Love. He still did not understand it, this fierce emotion, and he did not want to understand. It made him feel exposed, vulnerable - something he, Sesshomaru, should never feel.

She was turning him inside out, completely detroying him, and everything he had made himself, _thought_ himself to be - but he did not care, because now, she was _his_.

Yet the knowledge that he did not care seemed impossible.

For the first time in his life, he felt real fear. A fear of the unknown.

Sesshomaru had tried for the longest time to convince himself that it was not a mating in the usual sense that he wanted. He was simply curious about her. It was desire, and yet, not even that. He could take her body, pleasure her her in return for his use of it, and then forget her. He wouldn't allow their involvement to deepen. As if it could. She was human, and therefore, otherwise beneath his notice. He refused to allow himself to fall into the same trap as his father.

His turbulent glance was drawn to the pale, slender curve of her neck. He caught the sweet, damp scent of her hair and felt his body tighten. A fierce pulse began beating at his temple and at his throat.

It was far too late for that nonsense, and he knew it.

"You think of him."

-

Kagome hid her eyes behind her lashes. "W-who?"

"InuYasha."

"Yes." She didn't bother to deny it.

Sesshomaru looked at her in carefully controlled censure.

"Is it truly so abhorrent, the thought of submitting to me? I...care for you. InuYasha did not, or he would have taken you by now. Do you think that I would treat you so badly?"

"I-I'm not! I won't. I mean - I don't want you!"

"Do you think that InuYasha wants you?

Kagome stopped panicking long enough to look at him. He was like stone, immobile, tense. If he ever let go of his perfect self-control, she'd be caught up in the absolute fury of his release.

It was a frightening thought.

Something in the tone of his voice had drawn her notice. His tone hadn't changed, but something told her that he was dangerously on edge at the moment.

She was right. His beautiful face was blank, but he had an expression in his eyes that could have frozen a volcano.

"That's a horrible, hurtful thing to say for someone who claims to _care_ about me. You're just doing this to hurt him. You're jealous of him!"

Despite her words, which she knew he would take as an insult, his coolly composed face showed no hint of anything - no annoyance, dislike, no sign of offense.

"Jealous? Perhaps. In some small way," Sesshomaru shocked her by admitting. "I do not care enough about InuYasha to wonder if my taking you hurts him or not. It is my...curiosity about you which brought us to this."

"Why are you suddenly so curious about me? You've only tried to kill me about a hundred times!"

Sesshomaru tilted his head as he looked at her with a bland, yet slightly rebuking expression. "A large exaggeration on your part, miko," he responded tonelessly.

"So...why?"

"You wish to know why? I have dreamed of you. Your taste, your scent."

"Y-you've dreamed of me?" Kagome said, panicked. She switched tactics, and didn't allow him to respond.

"I don't care what you say! He won't be happy about this! I won't let him feel guilty about this, I'll go to Kaede, and get a spell of forgetting, something - !"

At that his predator's eyes twitched, and then narrowed in speculation. "Hm. Then perhaps I will not allow you to leave in the morning after all."

Kagome swallowed hard, suppressing a nervous urge to laugh. She was completely alone. Would there be anything left of her in the morning, anyway?

"He'll come for me! It doesn't matter!"

"Will he." Sesshomaru's voice didn't show any curiosity as to the answer at all.

"O-of course he will!" she snapped, but her voice lacked any real conviction.

Sesshomaru's already narrowed eyes thinned to gleaming slits. "InuYasha does not know how fortunate he is to have you. Creatures such as he have no honor. He is no better than an animal, putting you in danger, abandoning you to search out his dead priestess. If you were my mate, you would see none of these hardships. I would keep you in our private chambers at all times."

His mate! Shaken by the idea, Kagome stared at him. _'In 'our' private chambers? Did he really just say that?'_

"I couldn't allow another male in your presence without risking his life," Sesshomaru elaborated, not taking his eyes from her for an instant. "It truly is a pity you were not youkai-born."

Becoming more and more outraged by his archaic ideals, Kagome nearly bit her tongue in two suppressing her response to that. She'd noticed that far from being annoyed by her little tirades, he'd actually seemed amused by them! So, she wasn't going to give the big jerk the satisfaction..!

"Go on, miko," the tai-youkai murmured. "Say what you wish before you choke upon it."

"Oh, thanks for your permission, Sesshomaru-_sama_! Fine! I will, then! I _like_ being human, thanks very much!" Kagome exploded tartly.

"Truly? You have no wish to be immortal? A superior being?"

"I guess I don't need to bother asking what your definition of 'superior' is. No way," she huffed. "Besides, if being immortal makes you all arrogant, and demanding, and act like you're better than everyone else on the planet, I'll definitely pass, thanks!"

Red fires suddenly blazed in the molten gold pools of his eyes, their flames licking over her startled face.

Kagome still couldn't get over how someone who looked so cold and placid all the time could promote such explosive chemistry.

"Come." He held out his hand.

Drawing back slightly, she gave him a mistrustful pout. "W-why?"

His eyes narrowed dangerously once more, their glowing glare reaching into her abdomen and capturing her in a tight grip from within. "You will come to me. Tonight you have no choice. You must do as you are bidden...human."

"H-hey! I'm not your slave! Don't talk to me like that!"

"Your impertinence is staggering." Sesshomaru was becoming angry, but his soft, seductive tone showed no sign of it.

"You have no idea of who is truly the slave, here."

Kagome was too panicked to hear the dark, cryptic words he spoke like a curse, or see the hint of vulnerability in his eyes.

"Just let me go! Please, I need to get back to InuYasha! He - he could really be hurt!"

"You expect too much of him. Nonetheless, if he opens his eyes to the present, InuYasha may have you for the rest of his existence - only he can determine that. He can let me have you for this one night. I _will_ have you."

"No! I don't want this!"

"You will."

He flipped her easily onto her back, and pressing a muscled thigh between hers, he subdued her struggles.

His body was lean and warm. She felt the hilts of his swords bite into her hip.

"I want you, Kagome. Just as you want me. It is in your eyes."

Kagome's face caught fire. This was worse than any dream - !

"Tend me."

"T-tend you?" Her face twisted in confusion. "You want me to...cook for you?"

Sesshomaru simply stared at her. "Hn. You truly are an innocent, aren't you?" He pulled back a little, one eyebrow arched mockingly.

"I want you to _touch_ me."

Kagome was shocked, but she really did find herself wanting to touch him, suddenly. The tug in her midriff was insistent, becoming more and more strong with each passing moment. Hands shaking, disbelieving, she did as he asked, reaching up and running hesitant fingertips over his perfect facial features the colorful markings, down his warm throat - which made him growl warningly, the sound reverberating deliciously against her touch - across his silk-clad chest, and back up, over the delicate points of his ears.

When she touched his hair, she could have sworn she felt a shiver run through him, but before she could think about it, he'd pushed her hands away.

"Enough." His head was bent, his hair a concealing wall between them.

Kagome sucked in a shuddering breath, more affected by the loss of contact than she wished to admit.

What was _wrong_ with her?

She knew she was in real trouble when he quietly shifted the swords in his sash to lay on the soft grass beside him...

Kagome got up again and began backing away from him.

He unerringly followed.

"W-what are you doing?" Her voice sounded high and shrill even to her own ears.

"Sesshomaru...y-you can't do this! You can't just _f-force _me - !"

He narrowed his eyes at her, and the little knot in her stomach tightened.

"This Sesshomaru has no need of force," he told her softly.

He began taking off his armour, letting it thud carelessly to the ground as he started slowly toward her, his graceful hands working the intricate knot of the sash at his waist next.

The closer he got, the more clothing he lost, until he was right in front of her, holding his haori in one hand and clad only in his hakama and soft black boots.

"S-sesshomaru-sama," she tried to protest, her voice shaking because he looked just as he had in her dream. She stopped when he held out the huge-looking haori to her.

"Take off that half-breed's rag and don this."

_Wear his shirt?_

"Uh...I'm really not - "

"InuYasha is the dog that begs - I warn you, _this_ Sesshomaru does not," he stated in a black tone.

Frightened, but brave, Kagome clutched the yukata tighter and shook her head.

"As you wish, miko." He inclined his head slightly, dropped the piece of clothing to the ground as he stared at her from beneath his hair. The look in his eyes made her gasp and retreat another step.

"If you choose not to wear my clothing...you will spend the night wearing _me_ in its stead."

The air whooshed out of Kagome's lungs as Sesshomaru suddenly reached out and drew her against him, moving so fast that his long hair swung around and whipped against her bare legs. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as she became trapped, enthralled by his intense gaze.

When she finally realized he had her underneath him on the ground, she panicked and let out a sharp squeal of distress.

Sesshomaru stretched out above her, his fingers linked through hers inhair, his weight holding her down. As usual, his face and deep golden eyes were emotionless, his expression unflawed, untainted by any kind of 'human' feeling.

His touch, she noticed, although full of intent and carefully controlled, was anything but impersonal.

Kagome stiffened when one knee nudged between hers and gently, but firmly pushed her legs apart. She tried to force them back together in embarrassment, but her weaker feminine muscles were no match for the absolute strength of his. She bit her lip hard, and looked away as he settled himself upon her, his lean, lithe body covering hers with quiet strength and determination.

"Do not turn your eyes away from me."

Kagome didn't want to obey, but she was oddly helpless to resist the lure of his even, lyrical voice.

Her eyes wide and fearful, turned back to his, her body involuntarily arching into his in a vain attempt to push him off.

Sesshomaru transferred both of her wrists to one hand as heflicked a dangerous, clawed finger down the sensitive skin of her inner elbow with the other.

"My brother's touch has never graced this fair flesh," he commented coolly.

"He's touched me! Lot's of times!" Kagome shot back heatedly.

"Perhaps. But not...here."

"S-sesshomaru! What are you doing?" she gasped, frightened that he might inadvertently cut into her, or poison her. She'd seen firsthand what those hands, those claws, were capable of - !

"Your heat...pleases me," the demon lord purred.

Kagome gulped the clean, cold night air.

_Heat? Oh, Kami-sama - !_

"Inu...Yasha," Kagome sniffled, feeling an unbearable sense of hopelessness wash over her.

If InuYasha hadn't been truly hurt, he would have been here to rescue her by now. InuYasha was _always_ just in time.

Something was horribly wrong with him, she just _knew_ it...

Sesshomaru snarled as he tightened his grip on the wrists he held above her head. "You would prefer it was the half-breed taking you? I cannot be InuYasha for you. I am no half-breed. I was born taiyoukai, and it is taiyoukai I will always be."

Kagome frowned. He...Sesshomaru sounded...odd. Almost as if he was trying to somehow justify himself to her.

"I...InuYasha - he cares for me. He...maybe he might even love me, someday. Please, I don't want to do this with you."

"Would it mean anything if I said the words to you?"

Kagome blinked up at the demon lord.

Was he offering to tell her...he _loved_ her?

"I...you don't understand." Kagome turned her head to the side, hot tears sliding down her cheeks and into her hair. "Just saying the words doesn't prove anything. Anyone can say them and not really mean them."

"No? How then, can I prove it? How can I explain it to you? How can I tell you? I do not know how it came to happen, or why. All I know, miko, is that you walk upon my lands, that you love them, and I too, love them as much as a great demon can love anything that lives. How could I not come to love you as well?"

Looking up at him again, Kagome felt her body practically go into shock.

He looked so cold, but his body hummed with repressed energy. His eyes burned like banked-fires.

She didn't have the slightest clue as to what to say. They were the most beautiful and sincere words she'd ever heard spoken to her, but...

Was he expecting her to melt into his arms, and say, _'yes, yes, take me!' _or something? Because there was no way she could ever believe Sesshomaru - _the_ Sesshomaru - was genuinely in love with _her_! The Sesshomaru who'd tried to kill her, the same who'd looked at her with freezing disdain for so long, those golden eyes burning with a subtle brilliance that saw her as nothing more than the dust beneath his feet. He'd never lost a chance to point out just how much she, as a human, repelled him. If she was dumb enough to fall for it, and give into this trick, he'd end up putting her down even more-so, for forever - and probably in front of InuYasha, too!

He was still watching her intently, his whole body taut and hard against hers, and Kagome finally snapped a little. There was real _emotion_ in those eyes, and it looked so genuine...her miko powers were sensing danger, yes, but not necessarily _just_ from him.

Kagome sighed raggedly. The confusion was giving her a headache. She flinched and closed her eyes.

He was still watching her, she knew. She could feel it.

"What do you want me to say!" she sharply cried out.

Sesshomaru's voice was cold and hard. "Nothing." His hand moved against her again, and Kagome shivered as her body responded, and she opened her eyes to stare up at him again. He'd obviously done this many times before!

She didn't realize she spoken out loud until Sesshomaru answered her.

"This Sesshomaru has allowed females to soothe him," he granted, inclining his head in acknowledgment.

_Soothe him? _Kagome thought wildly. _He calls this 'soothing'!_

"However...no 'human' female has experienced me before," he continued almost reluctantly.

"What?" Kagome blinked again.

"You will take me," he stated with an arrogant toss of his head that made her heart miss a beat. "You will, because I wish it."

-

(edit)

-

Kagome's throat hurt. She couldn't remember why.

Maybe she was getting a cold.

Or maybe it was from all that screaming Sesshomaru had made her do.

"Oh, right."

Kagome opened her eyes, almost afraid of what she might see.

"Again," he stunned her by saying.

"Y-you're joking!" she exclaimed on a gasp. "Sesshomaru!"

The tai-youkai looked at her with satire. "Jokes are beneath me."

Sesshomaru slid his hands beneath her bottom, and she couldn't help the moan that escaped her as she felt the threatening prick of his claws against her sensitive skin.

"Oh, noooo - I can't do _that_ again! Are you crazy! _You_ can't do that again! I-I _have_ been educated, you know. I've read books, you can't - "

"This Sesshomaru can," he growled, eyes flaming beneath the soft fringe of his hair hiding the half-moon on his forehead. The rest of his hair fell long and lustrous over his shoulders. "Your first time should not have been so unforgivably brief. It _will_ be rectified." His eyes fell to leisurely peruse her chest.

Kagome nervously glanced away. "But - "

His long fingers caught her cheek, trailed down to her jawline and made her look back up at him.

"Silence, woman. I have far better uses for that reckless tongue of yours," Sesshomaru snarled, his mouth swooping down to capture her own.

-

(edit)

-

Breathless, Kagome looked at Sesshomaru helplessly. His beauty was incredible. His breath was coming in harsh pants, his tongue peeking out from between his sharp, exposed fangs.

The knowledge that she had brought him to this uncontrolled, disheveled state, awed her.

Mindlessly, she lifted her hands and pushed them into his hair, her thumbs brushing the pointed tips of his ears.

_Something pulsed_ between them in that instant, something warm, and vibrant, and alive, and Kagome knew then that things had changed between them.

Sesshomaru froze, and then closed his eyes as if in pain. He turned his head against her touch, at first hesitant, and then he caught one of her inner wrists in-between his teeth, nipping the soft flesh there with a heated growl...

-

(edit)

-

A long time later, Kagome was trying her best not to look the tai-youkai in the eyes as she plucked at the oversized silk haori covering her. After she'd recovered from this latest 'ravishing', she'd murmured something indistinct about the night becoming cold, and now she sat completely surrounded by the fluffy warmth of his long, curious pelt and shirt.

Sitting across from her, still clad only in his flowing hakama, Kagome watched from beneath her lashes as he methodically adjusted his soft, black leather boots, re-tying them firmly at his ankles.

He'd never taken his boots or pants off, she remembered with a cringe. She was - absurdly enough - almost offended, until she remembered how dangerous the forests were at night. Sesshomaru really couldn't afford to be 'caught with his pants down'.

The thought made her giggle, and Sesshomaru looked up from his work with a haughtily raised brow at the faint sound.

Kagome stopped giggling abruptly. The movements of his lean-but-powerful muscles were hypnotizing. It was hard to look away when Sesshomaru was bare-chested.

Sesshomaru re-focused his attention on his boots, finishing with them - and then he looked at her again, eyes searching.

"What?" Kagome squirmed uncomfortably.

"Perhaps this Sesshomaru should come to you again, take you away, and make you my concubine. You suit me well enough."

The suggestion made her nerves jump. "Ha! You only like the thought of me bowing down to you, and serving you! No way! In addition, I never wanna' do 'that' again! I don't understand how people can enjoy it so much!" she heatedly complained, lying through her teeth as she struggled to wrap his voluminous haori around herself.

Sesshomaru stiffened. Every muscle and ridge in his bared chest and arms went taut as wire as he lifted his chin in affront.

_Uh-oh..._

"You would turn away from this so easily? You did not...'enjoy it'?" His golden eyes narrowed suspiciously.

He bridged the distance between them in a dizzying heartbeat.

"I cannot accept this."

Kagome stood up quickly, but not without effort. She was physically exhausted, and her legs felt rubbery and soggy, like ramen noodles cooked too long.

"_Why can't you accept it! Your unbelievable ego won't let you think that I didn't like having you f-force yourself on me!"_

"Force? In the beginning, perhaps. After..." he trailed one finger down her cheek, and moved in close to murmur against her lips, "None have screamed louder than you while I pleasured them..._my_ _Kagome_."

Kagome was aghast at the thrill that went through her at his unexpected words. She scrambled backwards, almost falling in her haste to get away from him.

"H-how dare you say something like that!" she half-panted, half-yelled.

"I was not 'screaming in pleasure'!"

Suddenly he stood close by again, gazing down at her with eyes that flashed with lightning and flame.

"Hn. Allow me to persuade you."

Tilting her face upwards, Sesshomaru brushed his mouth across her own, not quickly, or harshly, as she'd expected, but gently lingering, as though he already knew she had hardly ever been kissed before him - before _that_ night.

Their breaths mingled. Kagome could taste him on her tongue as her lips parted to his.

Their bodies didn't touch, except for his hand that lingered at the back of her neck, his thumb against her cheek, just under her fragile ear.

Then he moved away.

There was something amazingly profound in Sesshomaru's expression. His love for her was there to see, shining in his eyes - but she could also see her own agonizing confusion over the chemistry between them mirrored there, too.

Kagome felt a great rush of pity for them both as she looked back at him, her lips curling in tiny, tremulous, bitter-sweet smile.

"A word of warning, miko," he murmured quietly, gazing down at her with gleaming eyes. "Keep your soft gazes to yourself."

_'Or I may never be able to allow you to go'_, were the unspoken words.

Kagome forced herself to look away.

-

(edit)

-

The unnatural breeze stirring the trees of InuYasha's forest was an unwelcome herald of the dawn. Demon's Night - the Bloody Centenary - was drawing near it's end.

Sesshomaru used his voice to break the long silence. The miko looked so distraught and unhappy that he took pity on her.

"Do not worry yourself so. InuYasha will not remember your abduction with the coming of dawn."

"He...won't?" Kagome almost fainted from relief. She didn't even think to wonder how that could be possible, at first.

Sesshomaru being Sesshomaru, he didn't bother to repeat himself.

"Nor will you."

Kagome's eyes turned wary.

"The events of this night will be forgotten by all save this Sesshomaru," he said in a cool monotone. "It was my wish, alone."

"You - your wish?" Kagome asked weakly.

"Yes." Sesshomaru speared her with a quelling glare.

He was definitely cooling down, now - at this rate, he'd be his usual icy self in not time at all.

Kagome blinked. Maybe she didn't want to know all the details. And did it matter? Weird stuff like this happened all the time in this period. He'd claimed no one would recall anything. Right?  
Silently she bit her lip as she tried to decide if this was a good thing, or not.

Well, of course it was a good thing! Sesshomaru might've made her want him, but he couldn't make her love him. He hadn't...had he?

No. No...she still loved InuYasha, and the memory of this night would only hurt him if he knew exactly what had transpired between her and his half-brother.

But...

She kind of did wish she could remember. It had been frightening, but...fascinating. She'd be a liar if she said she hadn't enjoyed it...enjoyed him. He was hard, and strong...everything about him was in such contrast to her own body.

Another thought suddenly occurred to her.

"Sesshomaru-sama?" she asked in a tiny voice, tilting her head back to stare up at the waning red moon and it's background blanket of stars.

There was an uncomfortably long beat before he bothered to acknowledge her.

"Kagome."

She bit her lip again, uncertain. The fewer words he said, the more frightening he seemed. His icy demeanor made it extremely hard to ask what she wanted to. She was afraid of being made to look foolish by him, of being put down...but then, no one had ever accused her of being timid, so she'd didn't bother hesitating anymore.

"Will...will you be alright?"

The demon lord slid a frosty gaze her way. His voice was cold and stern. "Of course. My... curiosity has been laid to rest with no worries of consequence."

"C-curiosity?"

"It was I who wronged you, miko. Do you pretend concern for my well-being?"

Kagome blushed wildly as he stared somberly at her. She could recall a time not so very long ago when those amber-gold eyes had melted under the heat of his passion...

"We...I mean, we - uh...shared an - an intimacy, Sesshomaru-sama," she stammered, averting her face so that it was in shadow. "I - we both know that I...I was far from fighting it, at the end. Wouldn't it be wrong for me not to be concerned about how you'll ...feel, after I'm gone?"

_'Didn't you tell me you loved me...?'_

"It is an unnecessary sentiment on your part," Sesshomaru said coolly.

Kagome felt like she'd been slapped.

"As for you not fighting me, it is called 'seduction'. You would do better to stop worrying over me, and protect your tender human heart. Save your worry for InuYasha, and if he will ever choose you at least over his dead priestess."

Kagome couldn't help it. She gasped. It had been a cruel thing for even Sesshomaru to say - but it succeeded in what he had no doubt meant it to. It killed nearly every ounce of feeling she might have been developing for the Lord of the West.

Heart-sore and now worse-than-confused, Kagome lay back down on the ground, tucking a silken fold of Sesshomaru's haori haphazardly under her arms and over her breasts, which still ached from his numerous attentions.

She felt him hovering nearby, still, and rolled onto her side away from him to stare into the darkness.

Only the shadows weren't pitch anymore. The dawn was coming. Soon she would be back with InuYasha.

_'InuYasha.'_

Closing her eyes tiredly, Kagome drew in a deep breath and hugged a downy pillow to her face, remembering too late that there were no pillows; it was Sesshomaru's mysterious white pelt that she cuddled to so fiercely for comfort.

She had to smile - the invincible tai-youkai looked a little naked without his fluff. _Hee_. Like Bouyo after a bath - only Sesshomaru would look a _lot_ better wet...

The soft fur stirred in the wind, tickling her face - it was odd, yet comforting. The delicate pile of the fur almost seemed like a sentient thing, providing a strong sense of reassurance and well-being.

Stroking a shaky hand down the pelt, Kagome inhaled deeply. It smelled like him, noble, yet wild. Darkly exotic.

Sesshomaru had told her that she would remember nothing, but how could she forget it, the...things he'd told her, made her feel? What if some part of her did remember? It would be awkward if Sesshomaru came around again and she started feeling..._amorous_, or something when she saw him.

Kagome had no idea that Sesshomaru stared at her still as she lay there, facing away from him. His far-from-cold eyes traced the soft white curve of her arm and shoulder in the waning moonlight. The long, flawless, slender curve of her arm and shoulder blades, the slim softness of her hips where the pure white silk of his clothing slipped dangerously low, revealing the slight indention of her tailbone...

He could smell her renewed arousal; he knew she wanted him even now, when he'd made her hate him.

He also knew he would never be able to look upon his clothing - or his pelt - the same ever again.

"You...you'll lose your arm again, won't you?" she enquired softly.

He glanced at the back of her lowered head. He fought the need to pounce on her again.

"Yes."

"Won't it bother you?"

Sesshomaru looked down at his hand, the one that had, in reality, been gone for a few years. He experimentally cracked his knuckles, staring at the sharpness of his claws, and took a moment to savor the hands' strength.

Truth be told, he had not paid much notice to the return of the limb earlier in the night. He had gone about his business as usual, relying once again on the arm unthinkingly. In the unforgiving light of a new day, it would be gone again.

"No," he finally answered. "I have no regrets. They are a weakness, and as such, a waste of this Sesshomaru's time. I will not bother coveting a better end to such things."

He was turning away when he felt a soft, butterfly touch land upon his doomed arm.

"I'm sorry."

Pity.

Sesshomaru's rage grew instantaneously, his eyes widening and bleeding blood red, his fangs lengthening to lethal points that bit into his chin.

_How dare she show him pity!_

He was barely able to control the entrance of his full demon form. He wanted to turn on her, to bite and tear her to pieces until nothing was left, until even that cursed InuYasha could not scent her...

Instead he looked over his shoulder at her, his face once again stoic, his eyes unreadable.

"A woman should not touch a man without invitation," he told her emotionlessly, though he knew she would take the words as contempt for her.

As predicted, she immediately withdrew, the gentle emotion in her deep brown eyes quickly giving way to anger.

"You should consider taking your own advice, 'my lord'!" she snapped with brittle sarcasm.

"Hn. I care not what you think of me."

She shook her head at him in pure amazement. "The nerve! You are so cold!"

Sesshomaru tilted his head to the side as he looked back at her, considering.

"You truly find me so cold, miko?"

He reached out a single hand and held it palm up as he slowly lowered himself to rest back on the ground against a tree.

"Come then," he stated in a near purr, his lashes flickering down to hood his golden eyes.

"Come...and warm me."

The girl looked at him hopelessly, from the lazily curled, clawed fingers of his hand, to his carefully shielded eyes.

"Sesshomaru..."

"Come to me...Kagome."

She went.

-

Kagome shivered, naked as Sesshomaru pulled on the rest of his clothes, and armor just as the sun reached the horizon.

Kagome knew they would be parted, soon. Her feelings were still in a wild turmoil about that.

"Kagome."

He loomed over her, his silvery mane gilded by the coming sun, an indefinable expression on his face. The hand reaching out to touch her jawline suddenly began to disappear, fading with the dawn's light as it rapidly began to fall across the land.

She watched as the full sleeve of his haori drooped with the dematerialization of his flesh, dropped once again, fluttering in the warm, cleansing breeze to rest flat and empty as his side again.

It was a heartbreaking sight, and Kagome's chest ached unbearably as she tried to reach out to him.

She didn't want him to be left all alone...

"Wait, Sesshomaru - !"

The night was over.

Kagome saw her own hand fade into nothingness as the warmth of the sun rushed across it. She fell into oblivion, her only company the soft, regretful echo of his last words to her.

"_Farewell...my Kagome."_

-

Sesshomaru watched the sun come up over the horizon behind the young priestess as she vanished, feeling the magic that had ruled the night slowly dissipate, much as the morning fog evaporated with the light of day.

It had never been just curiosity with her, he now knew. Never anything so simple as that.

Here was his proof, his..._love_.

Yes. He had known he loved her, but he had not thought to think so warmly of her.

He truly..._liked_ her.

Before Kagome, under no circumstances had he ever wanted to fall under the spell of a female - and then he had wished to feel what his brother had felt for the girl, wished to try and understand what it was about her that evoked such violent responses from InuYasha.

Most of all, he had wanted to experience what it felt like to have the miko's admiration, fascination, and love directed solely at _him_.

Sesshomaru knew now why his brother would fight for her, kill for her, why he would die for her - _had_ died for her.

Once again alone, in the harsh light of morning, Sesshomaru sincerely wished he had never found out.

_'Fool. For now you would do well to heed your mind, not your heart!' _he snarled at himself.

He suddenly straightened, fully clothed in pristine white, as fresh as he'd been the evening before, and pushed the troubling thoughts from his head. Though he felt oddly weary, he could not rest until he was assured of the girl's safety. The night was over, but Naraku's wretched plot was still waiting to be fulfilled.

"Naraku."

It would doubtless be a long and protracted battle, and though he would kill for her, the mere thought of Kagome was a dangerous distraction he must do without.

Sesshomaru clenched his lone fist.

There was hunting to be done this day.

_-_

To be Continued in _Chapter Seven: When Darkness Turns to Light_

_(Preview)_

_-_

There was little pain.

The wound did not hurt much, at the beginning, even with the miasma invading the torn flesh.

His blood would not stop flowing, however - he could feel more of it leaving him with every throbbing beat of his heart, sliding hot and sticky down his side, and hip, soaking through the fine white silk covering his leg, and gathering in an discomforting pool in the soft leather of his boot.

The blood of his body was spilling as if he had more than one wound, due to the infectious miasma - his body was powerful, still, the poison quality of his own blood trying to destroy it, but the miasma would not allow it to heal itself.

"Hn."

It was peculiar, the knowledge that he would be dead soon, and from something as inane as blood-loss. His body had always healed all wounds almost instantaneously...but perhaps it was not so inane, after all. His father had been dying from a similar wound, had he not?

Sesshomaru found himself smiling...

-

_(End Preview)_

_-_

A/N:I really hope this chapter was worth checking back for. Thanks for reading! _- D.V._

_-_

_Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha, or any related characters! _

_-_


	8. Chapter 7 His To Protect

**Demon's Night**

-

**Chapter Eight **- _His To Protect_

-

"After your first betrayal of me, you dare to suggest that I should become your ally?" Sesshomaru asked in a dangerous whisper.

He could hear the slyness in the dark hanyou's voice. He thought he would trust the likes of him again? Sesshomaru resolved to make this engagement short - he did not care to listen to Naraku's sibilant murmurs, the evil workings of his insane, nefarious mind.

After all, Sesshomaru did not intend to make the same mistakes twice.

He reached for the sheathed Toukijin. He slowly slid his fingers along the katana's sheathe to the hilt and then further on, to the pommel.

Naraku was no fool. He knew that with his own miasma, and Sesshomaru's melting poison, they were well-matched. Sensing danger, he continued his verbal assault, intent on seducing the dog demon.

"As I said, if you kneel, I shall allow you to live as my personal servant. Although devouring you would still greatly increase my strength."

"I do not suffer to answer to the demands of others," the demon lord said with cold fury. "This Sesshomaru kneels to no one."

"You shall kneel readily enough, I think, if I remove your legs at the knee," Naraku said with a vile smirk.

"You forget your place, _hanyou_," Sesshomaru stated icily.

A tentacle flew with a whistling slash meant to behead him.

Though he moved with grace and speed, his breastplate shattered. Metal crunched and splintered.

Sesshomaru's eyes widened slightly - his fast movements had kept his upper body from injury, but the next strike...

That was the killing lunge.

Pain almost struck him blind.

He was taunted by the knowledge that he may never get to finish his mission against Naraku - but only for an instant. The pain slowly ebbed away, numbed by shock, but he knew it would return all too soon.

Sesshomaru was not used to doubting himself. It made him all the more determined to rid the world of Naraku.

Any other being would be daunted by the dark hanyous speed and seemingly tireless skill.

Sesshomaru was not impressed. Naraku was little more then a clever pupeteer.

"_Souryuhha!" _

He severed one tentacle with the dragon blast, then another, and another. He did not allow the beast time to regenerate as he swiftly moved forward. He struck again, and again, deflecting its attacks, holding it at bay until his skillful assault sliced it to ribbons. At the end, he pierced the beast through it's upper chest, driving the point of Toukijin through the place its human heart was.

All through this, Naraku's transformed body twitched as the carnage mounted. He reeked of corruption, and his wrath was hellish, and fiery, but he was hopeless to respond in kind. His powerful body was a bloody ruin.

"You can't kill me!" the dark hanyou struggled to scream. "I cannot die! I will return, ever stronger! Then I will come to devour you!"

Sesshomaru's lips turned up in a cruel, terrifying smile. His hand lifted, he cracked his knuckles, glowing green poison dripping and overflowing from his claws - and then he flung it on the destroyed carcass, causing flesh and even bone to completely melt and disentegrate with a wicked hiss.

"You cannot come back...without a body to return to," Sesshomaru taunted, watching the half-demon completely disappear. He didn't allow even one scrap of hide to remain to escape.

Naraku died with his own screams of agony and rage at his defeat echoing in his ears.

-

"Kagome!"

There was a loud splash of water.

"Kagome? Please don't be dead! Hell, Kagome!"

Someone was shaking her - and hard, too. She didn't want to wake up. She felt exhausted.

"Hm?" she managed at last.

Someone tapped her cheeks.

"Oi, Kagome!"

"Huh?" she blinked.

A sigh of relief.

"Geez, I thought you were dead! What'd ya' do, dummy? Fall asleep in the river? You're lucky you didn't drown!"

Kagome squinted. The early rays of dawn shone behind him, darkening his features, and making his silvery hair glow. "Inu...Yasha?"

"Keh! Yeah, it's me! Who'd you think it was? All that soaking musta' waterlogged your brain!"

Kagome still felt groggy. She barely heard him.

Sitting up in the knee-deep water, she blushed when she realized she was still naked from her bathing. Luckily the water just covered her chest. She looked over to see InuYasha kneeling in the cool, clear water beside her, looking both anxious and annoyed, his red haori soaked, and his long hair dripping in places where it had been splashed. Droplets sparkled on his dark eyelashes, too...or were those tears...?

Kagome frowned, leaning in for a closer look, and InuYasha suddenly lurched back in the water, standing up, and turning his back on her as he leapt onto the grassy bank. She didn't miss the quick swipe of his hand across his face before he abruptly did his wet-puppy-wiggle (as she affectionately thought of it) and sprinkled her with cold water droplets before he turned back to face her.

"I'm sorry I scared you, InuYasha," she said carefully, crossing her arms over her chest.

The inu-hanyou immediately went on the defensive.

"Keh! You didn't scare me! I just woke up and realized you'd never come back to camp, is all! I thought I'd better come check on you."

"Oh, yeah, as if you'd actually be sad if I went missing - silly me," Kagome sighed under her breath. She closed her eyes for a moment, shaking her head, and then resolutely stood up.

InuYasha, still standing on the bank with his arms crossed, and his nose in the air, promptly dropped both and proceeded to gape.

Cheeks burning slightly, unable to believe she was actually doing this right in front of InuYasha - _again_ - Kagome put her chin in the air and marched out of the shallow water.

_What had gotten into her?!_

When she reached the bank where she'd left InuYasha's yukata the night before, she simply bent over and retrieved it, taking her time sorting out the voluminous sleeves and then pulling the over-sized garment on. She hesitated at the ties.

"InuYasha?"

"Y-yeah, Kagome?" he asked, his voice choked and wary.

"I, um...I guess you want this shirt back, huh?"

InuYahsa took a moment to respond. "Uh-huh." He lifted a brow, and smiled slyly, even as a blush brushed across his cheeks. "But for now, I guess it found a good home. What kinda' guy would I be if I snatched it from such a comfy lookin' place?"

It was Kagome's turn to sound choked. "I...I just meant, my clothes are probably dry by now. I...I mean, they've been laying out on that rock all night..." she trailed off, resisting the urge to cover her hot face with her hands.

InuYasha seemed to shake himself, and took pity on her, though an odd, amused half-smile stayed on his lips.

"Keh. Whatever. Just get decent so we can get back to the others, okay?"

Kagome sighed shakily. "Okay."

-

It was much later in the afternoon when the group was well on the road, when a sudden disturbance of the spiritual kind suddenly struck Kagome in the face with the force of a violent slap.

"Someone's near. Someone with jewel shards. A _lot_ of them!" she announced, shocked at the approaching strength of the power.

"_Naraku?"_

They were _all_ shocked when Lord Sesshomaru stepped into the road ahead of them - all save InuYasha.

InuYasha glared at him when he noticed his half-brothers eyes lingering on Kagome.

"Keh! Figures it's you, bastard. I sensed you weren't far away - but what I can't figure is why you have the stench of Naraku all over ya'!"

-

Sesshomaru gave his brother a look filled with his customary disdain.

His manner was cool and dignified despite his mortal injury - as was befitting a tai-youkai. He would not dishonor his father by collapsing before his enemy - in this case, his half-sibling.

Sesshomaru tossed the pouch containing the jewel shards on the ground near Kagome's feet.

"I believe this belongs to you, miko."

Her eyes went incredibly wide. "InuYasha! Those are the rest of the jewel shards! _All_ of them!" She looked from the bag to Sesshomaru with awe. "How did you get them? And Kouga's too!"

Sesshomaru didn't bother to look in her direction. "He was...persuaded. He lives."

Kagome sighed with relief.

"Keh! It's a trick! Stay back, Kagome!"

"Foolish hanyou." Sesshomaru turned his level glare on his brother. "There is no trick. I simply tire of your antics. Naraku is dead, and those are his jewel shards." He turned his burning golden gaze on Kagome for the merest instant, and then looked back at InuYasha. "Take them and do what you will - this Sesshomaru has no use for them." With that, he turned and simply walked away, leaving everyone gaping after him.

Kagome was still staring open-mouthed when she finally noticed Miroku sitting on the ground, peering in disbelief at his hand.

"Miroku!" Sango fell to her knees beside him as she finally noticed, too.

"The kazaana! It's...gone!"

Miroku stared at his now-whole hand. "Sesshomaru...he spoke the truth. Naraku IS dead."

InuYasha, surprisingly, recovered first, tossing back his hair, and crossing his arms petulantly. "Keh! So he hunted the bastard down for us, Big deal. We just softened him up for 'im."

Kagome, dumb-struck, just shook her head at him.

_What in this crazy world was going on today?!_

-

InuYasha's eyes were keen on the ground, widening slightly as they picked up the sight of the blood he'd been smelling ever since his brother had arrived. There was a puddle of red staining the greenery where Sesshomaru had been standing, and a trail of bright red streaks dripping along the path he'd taken his leave on.

Eyes narrowing, InuYasha leapt forward, intent on following the trail.

Kagome called out in bewildered exasperation behind him. "InuYasha! Where are you going? The jewel shards - !"

"Keh! Hang on to 'em tight! When you finish it, go to Kaede, and have her put it in the shrine with a barrier around it. I'm goin' to talk to Sesshomaru! I'll be back soon - I wanna' know exactly what this crap is all about!"

"_But, InuYasha - !"_

InuYasha knew Kagome didn't want him to go, but he kept running, because...

He knew what the others didn't, because he could smell the heaviness of the blood.

Sesshomaru was dying.

-

There was little pain, now.

The wound did not hurt much, except for at the beginning, even with the miasma invading the torn flesh.

His blood would not stop flowing, however - he could feel more of it leaving him with every throbbing beat of his heart, sliding hot and sticky down his side, and hip, soaking through the fine white silk covering his leg, and gathering in an discomforting pool in the soft leather of his boot.

The blood of his body was spilling as if he had more than one wound, due to the infectious miasma - his body was powerful, still, but the miasma would not allow it to heal itself.

It was peculiar, the knowledge that he would be dead soon, and from something as inane as blood-loss. His body had always healed all wounds almost instantaneously...but perhaps it was not so inane, after all. His father had been dying from a similar wound, had he not?

Sesshomaru found himself smiling.

Like father, like son. The similarities were striking. His father had died protecting what was his - the human woman he'd given his heart to - and so would his son.

"_Have you nothing to protect?"_

After all the things he'd said to his mortally wounded father, after the callous way he'd acted, it was very humbling to know he would be going to his death for many of the same reasons he'd argued with his father about.

Sesshomaru could almost hear the deep laughter of the Inu-no-Taisho.

However, he was humiliated to find himself growing so weak.

Had his father felt such fear as his own body's strength had waned?

He was panting, inconceivably, almost completely breathless. Grace of spirit and movment had always been of utmost importance to him - and here he was, _perspirating_.

Sesshomaru did _not_ perspire.

He couldn't fly. He was too weak even to change into his energy form. He could run without limping. There were consequences, however. The blood from the miasma-poisoned wound flowed more quickly with every quick movement he made, and the pain that had been nearly non-existent before now grew with each passing moment.

The pain of dying was nothing, he found, compared to the pain of seeing Kagome recognize him- physically, at least - and have no knowledge of why she felt so drawn to him...

"Oi, Sesshomaru! What do you think you're doing, you stupid bastard? Don't you realize you're bleedin' to death?"

Sesshomaru paused at the sound of his half-brother's voice, and it proved to be a mistake. He collapsed, barely able to turn twoard a nearby tree to catch his fall. The momentum of his body thudding against the solid trunk jarred his wound, and forced a pained grunt from the depths of his throat. Agony exploded through his abdomen, and he closed his eyes against the fire.

"Oi! Did'ja hear me, idiot?" InuYasha skidded to a halt before him, bringing with him the strong scent of crushed greenery.

Sesshomaru forced his eyes open, squinting slightly against the brightness of the late day sun. The spots of brilliant white dappling the blinding, warm streams shining through the leafy canopy of the forest swam dizzily before his eyes, before his idiot brother's head - the two of them - blocked them out.

Lifting his hand from the ground, he clasped it tightly against the wound pulsating in his side. He blinked the pain away, and at last focused on the twitching ears of the hanyou before him.

"Keh. You dead yet, Sesshomaru?"

Sesshomaru bit back a sigh. This was what he had been trying so hard to avoid - his brother witnessing him on his knees. It was the ultimate humiliation.

At least he did not know - would never know - that it was because of a human girl.

"What, did Naraku cut off your ears, too, when he gutted ya'?"

Sesshomaru closed his eyes and wiped his face of all expression. Showing InuYasha that he had succeeded in goading him into showing his annoyance was unacceptable.

"Leave me to die in peace...InuYasha...unless you have come to finish...me off...yourself. You are fortunate...it is too late for me to fight."

InuYasha sniffed and dropped down to sit crosslegged beside him, closing his eyes and tucking his hands into his sleeves as he tossed back his hair.

"Keh. Idiot. As if I would bother fighting you like this. You're a corpse already, and you know it." InuYasha went quiet for a long moment, for which Sesshomaru was grateful. His brother had a particularly rough, grating voice which wore on one's ears after a time.

The silence was not meant to last, however, as InuYasha suddenly, and inexplicably - as he often did - launched into an explosion of speech.

"Always gotta' be done _your_ way, don't it? If ya' wanted a piece of Naraku so bad, all ya' had to do was come to me. We coulda' taken his ass on together, and you wouldn't be layin' here bleedin' out like a half-butchered sow."

Sesshomaru opened his eyes and glared at him, greatly offended...and sadly, quite unable to do anything about it.

InuYasha cracked one eye open and smirked down at him, baring a fang.

Sesshomaru growled at him, eyes flashing red, instinctively trying to show his dominance.

His smirk only grew wider.

As he grew rapidly weaker, Sesshomaru lay his head back against the tree. He took a slow breath, fighting the urge to gasp. "Remind me to smother you...before you have the chance...to take your first breath in our next life," he said ruthlessly.

InuYasha rolled his eyes. "Don't jinx me. One lifetime stuck with you showin' up all the time to remind me how worthless I am was enough, thanks."

"So, why'd ya' do it?"

_He speaks of Naraku..._

"I...did...not...do it...for you...InuYasha," Sesshomaru said disdainfully.

"Yeah, yeah - you think I'm too stupid to realize that? So, why _did_ ya do it? What, did ya wake up this morning and suddenly decide you were feelin' suicidal, or somethin'?"

_'No, I fell in love, you fool.'_

Sesshomaru swallowed.

_Kagome_...

A fierce need rushed through him. He wished he could see her again, that he could lay his head in her lap, feel the tentative stroke of her fingers through his hair again as he drifted off, with the warmth of her smile, her kind, soft eyes, the sun shining down upon him...

"You gonna' answer me before ya' kick off?" InuYasha grumbled roughly from beside him - and then, closer...

"Oi. What're you starin' at?"

Sesshomaru blinked, once, and saw his perfect, hazy vision of Kagome dissapear, only to be replaced by the surly face of his brother, and twin replicas of his own golden eyes glaring down at him, his absurdly pointed nose barely an inch away from his own.

He was again stricken by how much the loathsome creature managed to resemble their sire. He was reminded of the night after InuYasha was born, of how he, Sesshomaru, had gone to kill the woman and child who had caused his mighty father's death. He had come upon them in the early morning, when they were asleep, but had found himself suddenly unwilling to carry out his vengeance.

It had not been the trails of fresh tears marring the lovely face of his father's mistress, nor the exhaustion or grief etched into the hime's features that had stayed his hand. In truth, it had been InuYasha himself. The babe had been tightly swaddled in what he'd realized was his father's prized robe of the fire-rat.

It was this that first gave him pause. That the child was given that precious item spoke volumes of how close he was to their father's heart.

The second thing that had made him walk away had been the barest glance at the babe himself. InuYasha had been awake, deep golden eyes wide and watchful and he gazed back at Sesshomaru, almost too calm and serious for a newborn infant.

Sesshomaru had taken one look at the child whose hair and eye color cried his fathers name, and had left without another moments hesitation.

He still did not know if it had been guilt over his callous words to his wounded father that had compelled his actions that morning.

Now, he supposed, he would never really know the truth of what had ailed his mind and made him spare the cursed half-breed...

"Keh! What are you thinking so hard about, Sesshomaru? Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself, there."

Pulled from his reverie, Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed, and he casually, slowly reached up with his hand and swatted InuYasha away with a flick of his forefinger.

_Poink!_

"Fool."

"Oi!" InuYasha leapt up to his feet with a swiftness that Sesshomaru found himself, at that moment, envying. He rubbed the stickness of Sesshomaru's blood from the center of his forehead and sneered at him. "_Grrrr_! Shit! Now I'm gonna' stink like your sorry ass all night!"

Sesshomaru fixed him with a pointed, if not a little unfocused, glare of his own.

"Father's other sword...the Tensaiga...I left it for you. With...Jaken," he stated slowly, but cooly. "The other properties there will fall...to you as well...unfortunately. Try...to act in a manner befitting your title. Honor...our sire, InuYasha."

InuYasha was clearly stunned. He also wasn't listening...

"Damn you, Sesshomaru! You've fucked-me-over my entire life, and now you're screwing me royally again! Right in the ass, you rat-bastard! You-you can't just _die_ without an heir! Listen! You know I'm no 'Lord'! Keh! Damn it, I don't _want_ - "

InuYasha cut himself off as his eyes narrowed on Sesshomaru's hip. He'd obviously just realized the sword wasn't on Sesshomaru. Toukijin was still sheathed at his waist, but Tensaiga...

He fisted his clawed hands. "Idiot! Why didn't you use it to heal yourself? Why didn't you take it into battle? If it was here, I could save you, you moron! You really do have some kind of a death wish, don't ya? _Of all the stupid - "_

_Why are you giving up like this? _was the the unspoken question.

Sesshomaru did not care to answer it, even though he could see the disappointment deep within his half-brother's eyes. He was unsurprised by the sudden attatchment InuYasha was forming to him. He was, after all, the last remnant of InuYasha's 'family'. InuYasha's human side would revere such a thing.

"I am...done, InuYasha." Sesshomaru offered no further explanation. "You will take me to father's grave. Leave the Toukijin with...my remains. It's too dangerous for any other to handle. Do this, and...and...promise...to care for the girl," he ordered imperiously, watching the crimson ribbons of the sun through slitted eyes as it slowly began to set in the West.

_'My lands', _he thought with a fierce surge of pride. He was sorry he would not get to see them again in this life.

"'Girl?'" InuYasha's ears twitched. "What 'girl'?"

_Both of them. Both._

A wave of weakness washed over Sesshomaru, and though he internally raged against it, his body was helpless to resist it. Pushing away a sickening sensation in the pit of his stomach, and a completely foreign sense of panic as his legs suddenly went cold and completely numb, he struggled for a calming breath.

"My ward. Rin. She is...with Jaken. Promise."

"Yeah, yeah, I promise. The little human kid with the toad. I'll take her to Kaede's village, okay?"

_And Kagome...my Kagome..._

"_Keep her...safe...protect..."_

"Don't worry about it, she'll be safe. I promised, didn't I? Huh?"

"Sess-Sesshomaru...?"

Sesshomaru didn't answer.

-

_Sesshomaru felt weightless - he was nothing, standing on nothingness. It was not cold or warm, here, not dark or light...the only sound was his own breath._

_He looked, blindly, into what seemed to be an eternal void...until the edges of it fluttered, and he could suddenly see through the solid grayness as if he stood gazing through a dark, silk-covered portal._

_He saw the shadow of his great father on the other side of the dark veil, and knew peace. He would be welcomed. Rin would be cared for. Kagome would be safe. And...he would not allow himself to forget her, not completely._

_Someday he would see her again. Someday she would belong to him._

_All would be well._

_Sesshomaru released his last, hard-won breath, and slowly reached for the curtain of Death..._

-

"Sesshomaru?"

InuYasha was torn seeing his brother laying so broken and still. The mighty Sesshomaru had finally breathed his last. He'd hated the bastard for most of his life, but...he had been his last link to his father. The last tie to his family.

InuYasha allowed himself to privately mourn in silence as the evening fell around him, and as the first stars of night twinkled down on the brothers, he carefully wrapped Sesshomaru in his great furry pelt, and prepared to fulfill his last wishes.

-

Cursing his late fathers choice of hiding places for his tomb, InuYasha rubbed at his watering eye, and took one last glance at the grave of his father - and now his brother - and left.

He had an inheritance - and a ward - to retrieve.

-

The kid had taken the news of Sesshomaru's 'absence' rather well.

InuYasha hadn't been able to bring himself to tell the human girl Sesshomaru was dead, so he'd concoted some bullshit story about how his brother had had to leave - for a very, _very_ long time - and how he was supposed to take care of her, now.

The little girl had lifted her chin bravely, sniffled a few times, and then nodded solemnly.

InuYasha had to wonder if she'd somehow seen right through his lame-ass lie. She'd definitely noticed the extra sword now gracing his hip.

She'd been quiet and tearful when they'd left Sesshomaru's lands - now _his_ lands, he supposed - and said her goodbye's to a sobbing Jaken and despondent Ah-Uhn.

Rin had perked right up when they'd arrived back at the village, though.

Shippou and the little girl ran off, practically shrieking with the excitement of having

someone else to play with.

InuYasha sighed as he watched them run off through the green grass and butterflies. He figured he'd hafta' leave for the West again, soon, seeing as he'd only left that toad Jaken in charge. Since Sesshomaru had left no issue, the leadership had fallen to him, but it wouldn't be long before some bastard got up the guts to come challenge him.

Across the village, he saw Kagome exit Kaede's hut, and his entire being perked at seeing her.

She saw him then, and waved him over with a smile.

Some of the heavy weight lifted from his heart as he trudged over to her.

-

Finally! It was about time he'd come back! Three days had seemed like an eternity waiting -

Kagome's relieved and welcoming smile faded as the hanyou approached. InuYasha looked tired, and sad, his ears drooping, the fire in his eyes decidedly banked.He was carrying _two_ swords at his waist, now, and had death grip on the hilt one of them.

"Something's...happened, Kagome." InuYasha looked at her with wounded eyes.

"Oh, Kami-sama. What?' she asked, dreading the news.

InuYasha unsheathed the second sword at his waist. He held up a sword that was unmistakably the Tensaiga.

"I - Sesshomaru is...dead."

That had been the _last_ thing she'd been expecting to hear.

Something struck Kagome in the heart, for just an instant - she felt like she was bleeding, dying - and then it suddenly eased. Amazingly she felt tears fill her eyes. She remembered she'd been dreaming about the demon lord...she wondered if the dreams would stop now that he was...

Her throat inexplicably tight, she put a fist to her lips and stared at the ground as it became blurry. She recalled with perfect clarity the last time she'd seen him at the pool in the forest, when he'd saved her. He was immortal, seemed so untouchable.

Mentally, Kagome ran through the list of the demon's deeds. Was it wrong to feel so hurt to know he was dead? Did he deserve to be mourned?

Sesshomaru was arrogant, intelligent, emotionally distant. He was strong, silent...and also often evil and manipulative. In deep contrast, though, she knew he also had a sense of morality, and honor - he was devoted to his duty as Inu-no-taisho.

"But...how?"

_How could he be dead?_

"He was badly wounded during the fight with Naraku."

Kagome looked at him with wide eyes. "Wounded?"

_The jewel shards! We stood right there the whole time he was talking to us, and we didn't even know...we didn't even know he was hurt!_

"W-where is he?" She blinked rapidly, trying not to let him see the tears forming.

InuYasha reached out a hesitant hand to rub a lock of her hair between his fingers. The small contact with her seemed to confort him a little. Then he lifted his other hand to rub at his eye, which was clearly irritated. "I took him to father's grave. That was where he wanted to go." InuYasha snorted. "After all that bitchin' about how our father tried to escape desecration, he went and decided it wasn't such a bad idea either, I guess."

"O-oh." Kagome bit her lip. "Well, he does - _did_ - have a lot of enemies. That...that was nice of you, InuYasha, to respect his...his last wishes. It's definitely something a true brother would have done."

InuYasha went pink and dropped her hair, turning away slightly. "Keh."

Kagome gnawed distractedly on the knuckle of her thumb to keep herself from wondering about the ache in her chest, and the tears in her eyes. "How did this happen? I mean..._Sesshomaru_?"

"I know."

Kagome did not want to think what kind of grievous wound would have been able to bring down a fully mature tai-youkai like Sesshomaru.

_And he __**hid**__ it from us...?_

Angry, suddenly, Kagome fisted her hands, ignoring the tears now sliding down her cheeks and into her hair. "_Baka_! Why didn't he tell us?! We might've been able to save him! Too proud to accept help from hanyous and humans, huh? S-_stupid_...!" Her throat closed off and she stood there, crying with a helpless rage, and not even really knowing why.

After all what had Sesshomaru been to _her_? To any of them, in fact, besides InuYasha?

_'He saved my life, that's why I'm so upset,' _she told herself, but that didn't seem to be the whole reason, either.

"W-wha -? _Hey_, don't _cry_...you can't _cry_, not for _him_!" InuYasha blurted, turning back to grab her hands in his.

"InuYasha! It's just...it seems like such a waste!" Kagome sniffled, her lips trembling. "I thought he'd be around forever!"

InuYasha hesitantly pulled her into his arms, resting his jaw atop her hair. "I know. I kinda' thought he would be, too," he whispered.

Kagome sobbed. _Why did this hurt so much?!_

"H-hey. Kagome. If I didn't know you had such a kind heart, I'd be worried about you havin' feelings for my stupid brother," InuYasha murmured teasingly with a husky laugh, trying to distract her - and Kagome loved him for it.

Drawing back, but still within the circle of his arms, Kagome looked up at her first love and smiled weakly through her tears.

_'W-ait! _First_ love?! What does that mean?!'_

InuYasha looked back at her with a gentle, questioning golden stare.

"What is it, Kagome?"

She couldn't answer. She didn't have any words.

The shikon-no-tama gave a throb of power within her pocket.

Kagome had always warned herself not to set her heart on InuYasha. First of all, he didn't love her. Not like he loved Kikyou, anyway. Even if the dead priestess was out of the way, now, there way no way he could ever truly be hers. InuYasha might care for her, might...desire her, but...he wasn't _in_ love with her. And she would never settle for merely being her look-a-like replacement. She could never settle for being second best.

"Kagome?" InuYasha questioned again when she delicately tugged away from him.

"Oi, wench, what are you doing now?"

Kagome sniffled, and wiped her hands down her face, forcing a brilliant smile.

"Why, I'm going home, of course! My work is done here!"

"_You're leaving us?!" _came the dismayed cry of Shippou from behind them.

Kagome turned to see all of her friends standing close by. Kaede and the little girl, Rin, could be seen watching from the doorway of Kaede's hut many yards away.

"Kagome," InuYasha said her name in quiet disbelief.

Kagome's heart felt pierced by his obvious hurt.

The foursome stared at her, aghast.

"No, Kagome-sama - !" Miroku's dark violet eyes showed deep sorrow as he stepped forward.

"Oh, Kagome, do you have to - ?" Sango put her hands over her lips. At her side, Kirara mewled her own protest.

"_Waaah_! Take me with you!" Shippou flew through the air from Miroku's shoulder and physically attatched himself to her face.

"Oi! Offa' her, runt!" InuYasha grabbed the kit by his scruff. The crying fox clung to InuYasha's arm, tears rapidly wetting his sleeve.

InuYasha ignored him for the moment, his gaze soft and confused as he looked at her.

"What about the jewel?"

"Oh, yeah? How could I have forgotten your wish..."

InuYasha shook his head, pushing the jewel back at her. "No, Kagome. Keep it. You keep it safe."

"B-but, InuYasha! What about - "

"I know who I am, now, Kagome," the hanyou said - and he looked as if he really did.

"You always said you loved me as a hanyou - that's good enough for me."

"Oh, InuYasha!" Kagome bit her lip, gazing at him with watering eyes.

InuYasha watched her, fear curling around his heart. He saw her take an unsteady step back, and experienced a moment of utter insanity - a fear of abandonment.

His hands streaked out, catching hers, clutching them tight. "Please, Kagome! Don't - don't leave me!"

"Y-you know I shouldn't. InuYahsa, I don't belong here. I never really did." Kagome swallowed past the ache in her throat. She couldn't stand this. "Then come _with_ me, InuYasha."

He only held her hands tighter, as if in desperation.

They both knew he wouldn't. The future was no place for him as he was now, a half-wild hanyou. He would be miserable there, crowded in modern Tokyo.

"Maybe one day...we'll see each other again," she suggested a little too brightly. "If...you want to, that is. You could come and see me at the shrine, InuYasha."

"Yeah. If I'm even still around, that is," he said darkly. "I never got to ask Sesshomaru how long hanyous can live. Maybe Myouga knows - "

Kagome switched their hold, her hands taking his and bringing them to her cheeks. She pressed a tender kiss to each palm and sighed, closing her eyes to savor his touch.

InuYasha's eyes went round and wide at the sight of her cuddling into his rough, warm palms, and Kagome's heart gave a hard thump.

"Don't be silly, baka. Of course you'll be around...in fact you'd better..." her over-bright smile faltered a little, and she blinked, huge tears running down her cheeks. "You'd better be there waiting for me at the well when I get home, or I don't..." she sucked in a deep, faltering breath, close to breaking down completely. "I have the feeling I'm going to need you, there, InuYasha," she whispered brokenly, flinging herself into his arms. "I need to know it wasn't all just a dream."

InuYasha went deathly still, before he flung his arms around her and buried his face and claws in her hair.

"I'll be there for you, Kagome," he whispered into her ear. "Somehow. I promise."

Kagome gave a slow, tight nod as she breathed in his wild scent. "I know, InuYasha."

InuYasha closed his eyes tight, cherishing her, the feel of her - his Kagome, the only person who had ever loved him solely as he was.

"I love you...maybe not in all the ways you need me to, but I do...love you. I always have...Kagome." He smiled briefly against her temple.

Kagome felt like her chest collapsed. She gave a little wail and sobbed against him.

"I love you, too, InuYasha..._baka_!"

InuYasha held her, feeling tremors race through her, and rubbed his hands over her back to soothe her.

"Stop crying, or you'll make yourself sick," he finally murmured sternly.

"I - I can't help it1 I'm going to miss you guys so m-much! Things have changed so fast - _too_ fast - !"

"Idiot." InuYasha scolded her gently.

At long last, InuYasha reluctantly released her to say her goodbyes to the others. He felt the call of the purified jewel more than once, but restrained himself. There was nothing he really wanted right now - more than Kagome to stay, anyway. But it wasn't possible, and he knew it, deep down inside. Besides, he'd never really sensed any youkai in the future. The jewel would be much safer there, at her family's shrine, with her. She was the Keeper of the Jewel, after all.

The little family walked her to the well.

At the edge, Kagome hefted her backpack and climbed onto the lip. She turned to look at him. "I'll take good care of the jewel, InuYasha. I'll keep it safe. Tell Kouga-kun I said I'm so sorry I didn't get to say goodbye - and to take care. 'Kay?"

InuYasha merely nodded, unable to speak, and felt his heart fall along with her as Kagome blew everyone a heartfelt kiss, and stepped backward into the well...

-

Two days after Kagome left for good, Kouga finally showed up in the evening, visibly exausted, furs ragged, legs limping, and fangs snarling.

"Where is he?" the wolf slavered in a rage-filled voice. "Where is _she_? How dare that fucking dog-breath use my woman? _And_ steal my shards!"

From his position near the now-mysteriously-sealed well, InuYasha shook his head at him. For once he was glad to see the wolf - the annoyance he felt helped keep him distracted from the awful, aching knowledge that he had just lost the one who probably eventually would have been the greatest love of his life.

"What're you goin' on about now, ya' stinkin' wolf? Geez, who pissed in your sake?"

Kouga glared at him, slightly-feverish, and wild-eyed. "_Sesshomaru!" _he spat. "He fucking _mated_ Kagome six nights ago, you ignorant shit!"

Silence.

"_He fucking did __**WHAT**__?!"_

_-_

It took several minutes of explanation, but InuYasha finally got the gist of what Kouga was raving on about. It didn't take him long to make his decision.

Fuck what Sesshomaru wanted - he'd taken Kagome, Demons Night, or not, no consequences be damned - and he was damn well gonna' pay!

"To think I was actually beginnin' to _miss_ the bastard - !" InuYasha snarled.

Kouga looked up in surprise as the hanyou before him suddenly reached up and dug a clawed finger into his own eye. He was even more stunned when the idiot didn't seem to do any lasting damage to himself. He watched the dog extract a perfect black pearl, squint deeply, and then pitch it carelessly into the sky - where it quickly opened into a glowing black void.

"InuYasha! Where are you going?!" he demanded as InuYasha crouched to leap into the void.

"What's it look like?" InuYasha ground out as he ripped the Tensaiga and Tetsusaiga out of their sheathes at his waist, his hair blowing back in the wind.

"I'm gonna' go try to bring that bastard back to life so _I_ can kill him!"

Kouga scrambled up, forgetting to favor his wounded legs. "Screw that, dog-shit, he's _mine_!" he growled. "I'm comin' with you!"

-

To Be Continued...

-

**A/**_**N: **__Holy freakin' cow!!! I'm not dead! I actually updated! (Now, as to whether or not you guys are happy with it after waiting so long, that's up to you. Hopefully you won't have to wait so long for the next part. One thing I wanna' point out, I do realize this chapter may have moved a bit too quickly, and I apologize for that if you are of the same opinion - but I really think that Kagome suddenly deciding to go was for the best. The fic needs to move along, and it's going to get pretty emotional from here on out, I think. I've been waiting for the next chapter since I wrote the first one, years ago! I really hope you guys liked this, and many apologies for making you wait! Thanks for reading! __**P.S. **__Don't kill me for killing Sesshomaru! Good-yet-angsty things will happen, I promise::runs and hides in secret base::_

-


	9. Chapter 8 One Step Beyond

**Demon's Night **

-

**Chapter Nine **- _One Step Beyond_

-

_A/N: _Hey, everyone. Just to quickly warn you, this isn't a happy chapter, so don't be too disappointed. Things will get better, I promise! BTW, if you haven't read the previous chapter in a long time, you might want to take a quick skim to remind yourself what's going on. Thanks! - D.V.

-

"Oi, Sesshomaru!"

"_Leave. Me. Alone."_

The guttural, pain-filled growl rumbled from the darkness in front of InuYasha, causing him to pause as he, unbelievably, felt a twinge of fear.

Furiously angry, but smart enough to remain cautious, InuYasha stood his ground and peered into the yawning mouth of the cave before him. It was deep, and pitch black, and within it dwelled a creature - the only living being - to have ever _completely_ successfully snuffed out InuYasha's life.

"You hafta' come out sometime, Sesshomaru!" InuYasha called out, annoyed by the cold shiver running up his spine. "You'll go crazy if you stay in there too long - and besides, I still haven't decided if I'm gonna' kill your miko-thieving ass or not!"

A low, decidedly unstable laugh echoed back at him, and InuYasha couldn't help blanching at the disturbing sound. Sesshomaru _never_ laughed. He raised his dark brows in surprise and shook his head, sighing.

"Then again, it's probably too late anyway," he muttered to himself, moving to one side of the cave entrance and settling down on a flat rock to rest. Crossing his legs and arms, he tucked his hands into his long haori sleeves to protect them against the cold, and leaned his head back against the uneven rock wall.

Damn, but he was exhausted. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he really was.

Finding his way back to his father's resting place had been easy. Finding Sesshomaru's fur-wrapped body had not. His brother's remains had not been where he'd left them, and through his fury about what Sesshomaru had done to Kagome, InuYasha had felt a spark of hope. Hope that his brother really hadn't died, and had gotten up and walked away - but that faint hope had been dashed upon the grisly discovery of the older inu's torn and bloodied pelt.

Though he'd been set to revive Sesshomaru only to murder him, InuYasha had felt a surprising amount of pain at the sight of the otherworldly carrion birds fleeing the scene as he and a still-limping Kouga came upon them.

"Goddamn crows!" he had yelled, chasing them off fluttering and screeching with his transformed sword.

"Hell, Dog-shit, I hated his guts too, but didn't ya' even give him a proper burial?" Kouga said beside him, nose twitching and eyes watering at the hideous sight.

Clenching his teeth, InuYasha shoved Tetsusaiga into the ground and turned on the wolf demon. "I laid him inside the old man's ribcage and built a tomb of rocks around him, okay? I don't know how those fuckin' birds got to him, but it doesn't matter anyway."

Walking forward towards the scattered remains, InuYasha determinedly began grabbing mounds of soiled white silk and dragging it together.

Meanwhile, Kouga stared at him. "Doesn't matter? He's...he's not even all there anymore, stupid! You can't...fuck, you can't still be thinking of tryin' to bring him back?"

InuYasha ignored him, looking around with stinging eyes to make sure not even a scrap of cloth had escaped.

"Dog-breath, he's dead! He's gone, you crazy fuckin' idiot!"

InuYasha stopped, trying to stave off the urge to be sick, and reached for the second sword at his waist with trembling hands.

"Stand back, Wolf. I don't know what's gonna' happen, but somehow the bastard's gonna' pay for what he did to Kagome!" Gnashing his teeth, a snarl rising from his throat, InuYasha lifted the Tensaiga high above his head and gave it a mighty slash downwards towards the body. Even as he did it, he knew it wouldn't work - the chains of death already bound Sesshomaru, the demon-imp death collectors had long since been and gone...but as the tip of the sword finished it's arc, there was a blinding flash of light, and a loud pulse, loud enough to shake the ground beneath their feet.

Temporarily blinded by the light, InuYasha blinked. When he could see again, he noticed everything had gone silent and still, including the wolf and the angry birds.

Looking down, he found himself blinking again, but this time in disbelief.

Sesshomaru was whole again, even his left arm returned, his clothing and hair as pristine as the white pelt pillowing his head.

"Y-you did it!" Kouga belted out beside him, giving a disbelieving laugh.

InuYasha felt a moment's elation, but then he frowned. "No. It didn't work. He ain't breathin'. Fuck!" Throwing the Tensaiga away from him, InuYasha growled in frustration, and kicked the dust. The lack of impact only made him angrier, so, cursing, he kicked a stone, a scraggling tree, a carrion crow unwise enough to get close to him - and then, finally, the source of his rage. His brother.

Sides heaving from temper and exertion, InuYasha kicked Sesshomaru so hard the great demon's body rolled for several feet before coming to rest on its side.

"_Sonuvabitch!" _InuYasha curled his claws into his palms and felt them bite painfully into his flesh.

"You can say that again, Dog-shit," Kouga murmured faintly behind him. "He's alive."

Whipping around, though he felt like he was suddenly moving in slow motion, InuYasha glared at the body - until he saw what Kouga had seen.

Sesshomaru was.._.breathing_.

-

"How be he tonight, InuYasha?"

Startled from his reverie, InuYasha leapt up from his rock, confronting Lady Kaede who had spoken. The old miko stood there quietly in the moonlight, her good eye watching him with a mixture of kindness and worry.

Taking a deep breath, InuYasha scratched the back of his head. "About the same, I guess. Still a few decades east of sane."

Looking troubled, Kaede pulled a shawl closer around her stooped shoulders and carefully stepped over the rocky ground to sit on the same flat stone InuYasha had just vacated.

"Ye brothers condition concerns me, InuYasha."

"Yeah? Well it concerns me too, ya' old hag. I'm gettin' tired of baby-sittin' him. I already had to miss the Miroku and Sango's wedding!"

Kaede sighed, shaking her head at his stubbornness. "Ye still do not understand, InuYasha. For Sesshomaru, who could only hate, love is particularly difficult."

"Keh! That bastard doesn't love anybody - ya' hafta' _have_ a heart, first," InuYasha snapped, abruptly beginning a feral pacing.

Pointedly gnoring him, the old priestess went on. "His body was renewed, most likely because of the power of the location ye were in, but it had been too long for ye to completely summon his soul back into his body. That, and the bits that the carrion crows had taken, affected his mind greatly, I believe."

"What? They didn't eat his brain, stupid," InuYasha said bluntly.

Kaede gave him a quelling glare. "Nonetheless, parts of him were missing, and though they may not be seen physically, it shows in his spirit. Ye brother is incomplete, InuYasha, and nothing will ever make him the same as he was."

"Aw, hell! Ya' mean he's gonna' be whacked-in-the-melon forever?"

Kaede shrugged, once again ignoring his rude comment. "As I said, I believe he shall always be one step into the beyond. However, time heals, InuYasha. As ye are both immortal, I reckon ye have plenty of time to find out."

"Yeah, right, that's easy for you to - hey, wait. I'm immortal?"

"Aye, to my knowledge half-demons can live nearly forever - as long as ye don't die from massive wounds, first."

InuYasha gave her a sharp, suspicious glance, a snarling smile lifting one side of his lips. "Ha, wishful thinking, old hag?"

The old priestess sniffed. "My _name_ is Kaede."

"Whatever. Oi!" InuYasha's eyes suddenly brightened. "This means I can meet Kagome after all!"

"Possibly. But please remember, it means that Sesshomaru will be able to see Kagome again as well."

InuYasha growled his displeasure.

Kaede sighed again and stood. "Ye brother lies suffering in yon cave, InuYasha. He has died and returned and is not whole. He is not the same Sesshomaru ye once knew. Right now he is more beast than great demon."

"Yeah? Well I don't give a flying fuck! I'm still gonna' make sure he pays for what he did to Kagome! I'm still gonna' kill the bastard!" InuYasha snarled.

"Mayhap killing him now would be a mercy, InuYasha," Kaede said very quietly, and watched the hanyou's golden eyes widen in shock at her blunt words. "I am not condoning what Sesshomaru did, but perhaps - " the miko gave a slight shrug. "All he knows now is confusion, all he feels now is pain - the sickening pain of being apart from Kagome, whom he considered his beloved, whom he _died_ to protect, InuYasha. All he knows is that a part of him is missing, and he knows not how to get it back. Please take care to remember this, InuYasha, and have compassion for him, he who has never known compassion."

InuYasha gnashed his fangs, his chest puffing up in outrage. _"Compassion...! _You know, I'm sorry I ever said anything to you about this, dammit! Kouga said there was a reason humans didn't know, and I shoulda' listened to him - _wait_! Hell, what the fuck am I sayin'?"

Kaede's wise smile was full of gentle reprimand. "Even Kagome felt compassion for a selfish, violent half-demon once upon a time, InuYasha."

InuYasha went silent at last, and Kaede, satisfied she had made her point, heaved herself up from her seat and quietly made her way back through the forest to the village.

-

_She was gone._

Sitting inside the cave, wrapped in his pelt, with his knees drawn to his chest and his arms draped over them, Sesshomaru tried once again to ignore the lingering stench of his own death in his sensitive nostrils, and listened to the maddening refrain in his head - _'she's gone_'. Kagome was gone.

He knew she was gone, had known from the moment he'd woken from the peaceful, dead sleep that had claimed him. Yet, he couldn't stop repeating the knowledge in his head, and knew he wouldn't for some time - just as he also knew he was Sesshomaru, heir of the inu-no-taisho, lord of the western lands, and he shouldn't have been hiding in the dingy cave, or sitting in such a common, cowardly manner. To act as such was beneath him, and he knew it. He should have left InuYasha's side as soon as he'd awoken, should have gone to bathe, and surely not have allowed his irascable hanyou sibling to see how low he had come. To see how mad he, Sesshomaru had gone when he found he could no longer feel Kagome's presence, and had come to the conclusion that somehow she had died after he had, that his sacrifice had come to naught. Definitely _not_ should he have allowed his wrathful half-brother to take him upon his back and carry him back to this loathsome village where Kagome's lingering scent was so strong it had brought him somewhat back to his senses, and finally to his feet and running to the questionable sanctuary of this cave where he now dwelled.

Listening to the night wind blowing the tree branches outside the cave entrance, Sesshomaru caught the scent of the crisp air temporarily surge through the cold, stagnant air around him. It calmed him, and made him raise his head to breathe it deeply in. The movement made his neck muscles seize up for a moment, and he realized how long it had been since he'd tried to look up.

It should have infuriated him, made him feel disgusted with himself - he was not a demon who bent his head to anyone - but instead he just felt exhausted.

The scritch-scratch of a claw near the cave entrance alerted him to InuYasha's presence again. One had to wonder if the boy did indeed have a flea infestation from the number of times Sesshomaru had heard him scratch himself.

"Hn." Closing his eyes against a sudden absurd vision of his half-brother scratching his ear with his foot, Sesshomaru sighed and leaned heavily against the sharp rocks behind him. The hanyou would not leave the area for very long, and Sesshomaru often wondered what he was doing waiting so long to make an attack. Had he not vowed to do so...?

-

Kaede couldn't help but make a pained face as she hobbled across the wooden bridge towards her home. She was not near death, and did not plan to be for some time, but she was no longer as capable of traveling such long distances into the forest and back as she used to be.

This situation with InuYasha, Kagome, and Sesshomaru bothered her greatly. Sesshomaru should not be alive, but he was. It came as no surprise to her that the demon was hiding away. She did not think it was fear that drove him, but despair.

No, InuYasha did not know it, but he had already gained his revenge. Sesshomaru could not live in peace knowing Kagome was gone - and InuYasha had brought him back from the dead _after_ she had left.

Kaede shook her head as she pushed through the cloth covering her hut's door. She was saddened to know she would not get to see what would happen once those three were reunited at last - but she did not envy the brothers' centuries-long wait.

-

"So...is that really how you feel?"

Sesshomaru frowned, casting his head towards the sound of InuYasha's barely perceptible voice. He was speaking very quietly, very slowly, which was quite unusual. It was fine to him, however - he was as reluctant to answer InuYasha's question as InuYasha had been to ask it.

His confusion must have shown in his silence, because InuYasha eventually elaborated.

"You-you really miss Kagome that badly? Is that...are you really sick because she's gone? Did you...love her?"

Sesshomaru blamed his recent experiences for what he allowed himself to vocally admit - and to InuYasha of all beings.

An answering growl rumbled forth from his tight throat, and he cursed himself for his lack of control.

InuYasha was quiet for a very long time before he said, "I miss her too - a lot. But...missing her didn't make me go insane. Missing her didn't make me sick from it. My heart hurts, but it ain't broken."

Sesshomaru gave a short barking laugh that broke at the end.

"Yeah, an' I suppose that means yours is?" Sniffing slightly as if in doubt, InuYasha shifted in the darkness. "Since when do you have a heart, Sesshomaru?"

"Since..._she_...died."

"Died?" Pausing as if in surprise at his verbal reply, the hanyou then ventured cautiously further into the cave.

Lost in his emotions and thoughts, Sesshomaru allowed it. He was too troubled to bother to chase the other inu away.

"Wait. You think Kagome is _dead_?"

Sesshomaru shot to his feet, his weakness from his inability to eat visible in the way he swayed and temporarily reached out a clawed hand to balance himself against the wall.

"Think?" he asked in a dangerous tone, impatiently tossing his head and trying to ignore the clumsy indignity and pain of accidentally stepping on his own hair.

"Kagome ain't dead, you dumb-ass!" InuYasha laughed, uncaring of the warning growl sounding from deep within Sesshomaru's throat.

Sesshomaru kept growling. It was nonsense, but he suddenly did not care for the hanyou's familiar use of _her_ name.

"Hey! Didja' hear me, Sesshomaru? I said Kagome ain't - "

InuYasha's harsh voice was abruptly cut-off as Sesshomaru dashed forward, catching him by the throat and lifting him off the floor. All was silent except for the faint choking noises InuYasha made as Sesshomaru leaned in towards the hanyou's face, fangs shamelessly exposed, eyes bleeding red.

In a voice seething with rage, Sesshomaru snarled, "Do _not_ use her name around me again, half-breed - do it, and you welcome your death a second time!"

InuYasha was slowly turning red, then purple, and it was suddenly the hardest thing Sesshomaru had ever done to open up his grip and drop the hanyou to the ground.

Coughing and hacking, InuYasha rubbed his throat as he fought for breath.

Sesshomaru watched on as the rage slowly drained from him, leaving in its place a curious emptiness. He saw InuYasha leap up, and wondered at his own sudden lack of response to the challenge in his half-brother's eyes.

"She isn't dead," the hanyou growled hoarsely. "She just went back to her own time-period."

Sesshomaru found himself grasping the foolish claim with disgusting ease.

"How?"

"Through the old Bone-Eater's well."

"When?"

"Oh, about five-hundred years into the future, or so."

"Hn. She may as well be dead, then," Sesshomaru said disinterestedly, beginning to turn away in dismissal.

"Oh, fuck you! You may act like a cold bastard, but you can't tell me you don't care! Not after all this shit!" InuYasha raged, his face turning red again.

Sesshomaru arched a brow. "Oh? Is there a way to travel forward to be with her?"

InuYasha scowled, his ears twitching in annoyance. "Well, no."

"Is there a way to make her recall her feelings for me?"

"Ya' mean if she really had any in the first place? No."

Sesshomaru inclined his head mockingly. "Then you see this Sesshomaru's dilemma."

"I know you love her!"

"In what way does this matter, now, InuYasha?"

"You're gonna' wait for her, right? _Right_?"

"Hn."

"Fuck that! You died for her. You can't just suddenly decide to will yourself to death 'cause she ain't around right now!"

"You expect this Sesshomaru to _wait_?"

"Listen, I know it's freakin' unheard of, but yeah! Why the hell not? Half-a-millenia ain't nothin' for us!"

"'Us.'"

InuYasha snorted. "Yeah, like I'd leave her alone with the likes of _you_ again."

"You intend to be her guardian?"

"Intend, nothin'! I ain't just gonna' stand by and let you rape her again, ass!"

"Word your next sentence carefully, InuYasha."

"If you love her so much, why did you do what you did to her?!" InuYasha asked in a furious shout. "Dammit, why did you rape her?!"

Sesshomaru tossed his troublesome hair over his shoulder and fixed him with a disdainful stare. "This Sesshomaru did _not_ take her against her will."

"Heh! That ain't what Kouga said!"

Eyes narrowed, Sesshomaru took a slight step forward. "Since when do you believe the word of a lowly wolf-demon?"

"Since he told me about the effect demons can have on humans on that night, asshole! You ain't foolin' anyone! Sure, you say you didn't rape her, but what else can you call it if you used some kind of power to seduce her, huh? She wanted _me_, not you!"

"Hn. She _used_ to want you, brother." Sesshomaru told him with a cold smirk. "I did try to influence her, but she remained unaffected."

"That...then that means - "

"She wanted this Sesshomaru. She still did, even when we parted."

InuYasha's face went nearly as pale as his hair and would have all-but disappeared if not for his vibrant eyes.

"Kagome loves me."

Sesshomaru allowed the smirk to fall. He almost disputed InuYasha's comment, but some newfound patience for the hanyou's delusion held him back. Was this pity?

InuYasha looked over at him and seemed to shake himself. "Ain't you gonna' tell me how wrong I am?" he asked harshly.

Sesshomaru studied him silently for a long moment and then turned away, the steadily lengthening ends of his hair dragging the dirt floor.

"Oi, just spit it out, Sesshomaru!" InuYasha demanded.

Pausing, Sesshomaru looked slightly over his shoulder. In a very soft voice he said, "Need this Sesshomaru say anything at all?"

InuYasha frowned in puzzlement.

Sesshomaru sighed. "You are so certain you know the answer, InuYasha. What does it matter what this Sesshomaru assumes? You will believe what you wish."

InuYasha was silent until Sesshomaru turned around and began walking away again. He glanced up, surprised, when he saw the demon lord making his way to the cave entrance.

"You goin' out?" he asked doubtfully.

Sesshomaru did not bother to stop and explain, but he was going to bathe. He held little hope of ever seeing the miko again, but knowing she was alive, somewhere...perhaps he would try living again. After all, as InuYasha had said, what was a few hundred years to likes of him?

Entering out into the night air, Sesshomaru instinctively sniffed his surroundings, and then sought out the moon.

The brightness of it made him wince, and consider going back inside. Then he realized how close he was to succumbing to his weakness. Hiding was not something he did. Why was the urge so strong? Did he fear death again?

The movement of his brother following behind made him move his feet again. He would have gathered his energy and flown away if he'd been able, but he was still too weak.

InuYasha was almost upon him when he took a step and stumbled upon his damnable hair again. Tired and aggravated, Sesshomaru grabbed the mass in his hand - the one that had finally been returned to him - and lifted the other, his claws crackling with a meager, but angry energy. In an unexpected fury, he prepared to cut the vexing length in two, only to have a hand grab his wrist before the sharp claws could descend.

"_What the hell are you doing?!"_

Panting, Sesshomaru stared at the green energy glowing at his fingertips and swallowed heavily as he came to his senses.

"Man, you're crazier than I thought if you were considering slicing all your hair off," InuYasha told him, roughly throwing his hand down.

Eyes widening, Sesshomaru slowly let go of the thick sheaf of hair in his hand, watching it spill into the dirt. So it was true, after all.

He had gone mad.

-

Awhile later, back in the village, InuYasha explained what had happened to Miroku and Shippou who he had found standing outside Kaede's hut.

"I dunno' why it's suddenly growing so fast," he told Miroku with a shrug.

"Perhaps it has something to do with the residual demonic energy after his initial death. With the trauma he has been through, I am not surprised at anything he is going through right now. His energies are most probably as twisted and tangled as his psyche," Miroku offered sagely. "At the very least, I know that human hair continues to grow after death. Maybe it is the same for demons."

"Hell, he wasn't dead that long!" InuYasha .

Miroku merely shrugged.

"Why doesn't he just cut it if it's so troublesome?" Shippou asked innocently.

InuYasha looked at him disbeleivingly.

"What?"

"Dog-demons don't just cut their hair, Shippou. It's almost a freakin' taboo - especially to those of Sesshomaru's status. Cuttin' his hair would be like declarin' himself powerless to his enemies - and Kami knows he needs all the help he can get right now."

"Oh." Shippou blinked. He pursed his lips in thought, and then jumped up, snapping his fingers. "What if I gave him my hair tie? You think it'd help?"

Miroku smiled at the kit. "That is a very kind offer, Shippou-chan, but I do not think - "

InuYasha suddenly straightened up. "Wait, I think you may just have somethin' there, kid! Thanks for the idea!" Ruffling Shippou's hair, InuYasha got up and dashed off.

"Uh, you're welcome?" Shippou grunted, trying to fix his hair.

-

In the end, all InuYasha had to do was find Sango. As a demon hunter, Sango knew a lot of the traditions of their kind, and she also knew that it wasn't a done thing for one male to handle another's hair. When InuYasha asked her, she readily agreed, and together they went to coax Sesshomaru from the pond near the village's edge. What really surprised InuYasha was his brother's acceptance of his suggestion.

Sesshomaru had been in a sort of daze when when they'd arrived, and even InuYasha had winced at the red welts gracing his brothers skin from where he'd scrubbed too harshly.

Sango had blushed despite being a recently wedded woman, and turned away in embarrassment when Sesshomaru had risen to his feet and waded out.

The demon sat indifferently and allowed Sango to dry his his hair with a length of cloth she'd brought with her from the village. InuYasha snorted when Sesshomaru refused to don his 'soiled' clothing, and threw his haori across the other males lap - for Sango's sake, he told himself.

"Whaddya' think?" InuYasha asked after Sango backed off a long time later, and bowed respectfully to the demon lord.

Sesshomaru looked into the clear pond he sat before and turned his head slightly, but said nothing.

"You kinda' look like father with your hair like that," InuYasha muttered reluctantly.

Sesshomaru continued to look at his reflection impassively. "It will do," he finally said of the thick top-knot and seemingly-endless flowing tail of his hair caught with gleaming black-and- gold hair-sticks.

Sango met InuYasha's eyes with her troubled ones and gave a helpless nod before gathering Sesshomaru's clothing. She made some comment about seeing them laundered, and then silently left.

Sitting there in the moonlight, his marble-white back exposed and vulnerable, Sesshomaru was an easy target. Anger and resentment tempted InuYasha, and he found his hand gripping the tetsusaiga with painful force.

"You would not have gone to all this trouble if you were going to send this Sesshomaru back to our father, InuYasha," Sesshomaru startled him by saying.

InuYasha's eyes narrowed as prepared to tell Sesshomaru just how wrong he was, but then one of his words caught his attention and distracted him.

"Father? You've seen him?"

Sesshomaru nodded absently, and InuYasha paced around to sink down on his haunches a safe-distance away from his older brother. He clenched his claws and gripped the green, sweet-smelling grass in-between his fingers.

"So...you remember what death was like?"

Sesshomaru profile was so still, InuYasha thought he might not respond, but then -

"I remember the darkness. It was silent - soothing. Father was there, but only as a shade. He did not speak, but somehow...I knew what he was thinking. There were others, but this Sesshomaru cannot remember."

Swallowing hard, InuYasha glanced down at the grass prickling his hands. "Do you miss it?"

Sesshomaru turned his head to look at him. "There was no pain."

InuYasha's eyebrows drew together. "That's no answer."

The great-demon took forever to reply. "Being able to breathe is preferable to the stillness."

"You felt like you were suffocating that whole time?" InuYasha asked, disturbed by the idea.

"No...but being able to draw air helps to remind one they are alive."

InuYasha looked down once again. "So...you don't want to kill me for bringing you back?"

"That is a foolish question, InuYasha. There was never a time this Sesshomaru did not wish to kill you."

Eyes flashing upwards once more, InuYasha felt his temper rise until he saw Sesshomaru looking back at him, something like laughter in his eyes.

"Un-freakin-believable," InuYasha muttered, then stood up from his crouched position and crossed his arms against a sudden chill. "Who are you, huh? Cuz' you _definitely_ ain't Sesshomaru."

Sesshomaru didn't answer at all this time, and InuYasha was wise enough not to push him to. He had the feeling Sesshomaru didn't know himself.

-

Over the next several days, Sesshomaru surprised eveyone by lingering outside the cave for longer periods of time. The villagers were still pretty much terrified at having him in their midst, but he moved through the paths and roads as if not even noticing their existence.

To InuYasha the annoying behavior was normal, and he felt a little relieved by witnessing it. One thing that was out of the norm, though, was the fact that Sesshomaru persisted in bathing at least twice a day.

Following his brother in case there was trouble had become a habit, and InuYasha was quickly getting tired of waiting for the demon to finish his obsessive cleansing. Sesshomaru never seemed satisfied until he took off a layer or three of skin, and it creeped InuYasha out. He definitely wasn't all there, and even Rin, who'd practically attached herself to Sesshomaru's leg after he'd finally deigned to see her, had noticed, and started keeping her distance.

"What d'you keep takin' so many damn baths for? I swear, you bathe more often than Kagome ever did!" InuYasha finally complained loudly one evening from his relaxed perch in a tree not far from where his brother was bathing - if you could call it that. It looked more like torture to him...

-

Ignoring the rage of pain at the mention of her name, Sesshomaru paused in the waist-deep water and turned to look up at his sibling.

"What? Oh...sorry, I said her name again, didn't I?" InuYasha said, shifting on his branch, not really sounding sorry at all.

"It is not that. Are your hanyou senses so weak that you cannot smell it, InuYasha?"

Chest puffing up, InuYasha crossed his arms over his chest and lifted a brow. "What d'ya mean? Smell what?"

Sesshomaru gave a slight shrug, listlessly staring at the lightning-bugs weaving around the tall grass near the edge of the pond.

InuYasha gave a few exaggerated sniffs over his shoulder. "I don't smell anything - except that massacre of a meal Sango is preparing that she thinks is dinner. Man, I don't envy that damn monk one bit."

Sesshomaru shook his head slowly, eyes strangely unfocused, the heavy, wet tail of his hair swinging gently against his back as he turned and began to wade out, feeling strangely heavy. He made his way to his clothes hanging on a branch nearby, and slowly dressed.

"I do not understand...the stench...it makes my stomach churn. I cannot bear to eat, it is so prevalent," he said quietly, unable to believe InuYasha could not sense it.

InuYasha leapt down from his tree, and approached cautiously. He narrowed his eyes, a dawning suspicion lighting them. Since when did Sesshomaru say 'I'?

"What are you talkin' about, Sesshomaru? What stench?"

Sesshomaru looked back at him with dull eyes. "It is me. I reek of death. Can you truly not smell it?"

-

Taken back entirely, InuYasha could only watch as Sesshomaru slowly walked away, his steps frighteningly unsure. The fragile reassurance that his brother was gradually returning to normal was broken in two - this behavior definitely wasn't normal. And while not eating wouldn't kill Sesshomaru, it certainly couldn't be helping.

InuYasha sighed. He'd been hoping he could return Sesshomaru to the West, soon, and get the plaguing messages from the ever-more frantic Jakken off his back, but that didn't look like it was gonna' happen anytime soon, now.

Grinding his teeth against the tangle of emotions and worries, InuYasha gave himself a shake and headed back to the village, trying to tell himself he wasn't regretting dragging Sesshomaru back from the dead - or letting Kagome go back home so quickly. He wasn't sure even he could endure five-hundred years of _this_...

-

_To Be Continued..._

-

_Author's Note #2: _Apparently people are starting to think I'm the devil for not updating for so long, so here it is! Sorry, I guess time just got away from me, and on top of that, although I knew where this fic was going from the beginning, I had to wait for everything to just come to me, and luckily it finally did. I do have every intention of finishing this fic, so don't worry. To those of you who just found this, please let me tell you I am aware that InuYasha cannot use the black pearl over and over again. I hope you'll understand my fudging the canon a little for the sake of the story. Thanks for reading, everyone, and special thanks to those of you who have been more than patient. I appreciate it.

-


	10. Chapter 9 Follow Me

**Demon's Night **

**Chapter Nine: **_**Follow Me**_

Kagome didn't want to move after she landed at the bottom of the well. She was scared to. She was afraid of what she might - not - find.

Standing in the cold dark, she closed her eyes and found herself inhaling the air, trying to catch the scent of anything she'd been familiar with from the era she'd just left, because, what if? What if she got to the top of the well, and he wasn't there? What if it all really had been just some crazy dream, some kind of delerium from a sickness she'd convinced herself she didn't have?

When she finally got tired of trying to give herself a panic attack, Kagome looked up at the opening of the well high above her, and squared her shoulders for the short but tough climb. When she got to the top she heaved herself and her bag over with a grunt, and sat with her back up against the well as she caught her breath. For some reason, that had been the hardest climb out of the well she'd had since the first one. She moved her right knee gingerly after a minute, grimacing as she tugged what she suspected was a pulled groin muscle. _Great_.

Shaking her head in the gloom of the wellhouse, she made herself move, half-heartedly dragging her bag behind her before dropping the strap with a shrug. She didn't really need it anymore, and she hurt, so she'd come just come back and get it later.

The air outside the wellhouse was cool, but hardly welcoming. She could understand why InuYasha had always complained of it smelling funny when he visited - she could definitely tell the difference now, when she was painfully aware.

Descending the steps to the stone walk, Kagome paused to rub the sore muscle in her thigh. Assuming with the quiet of the shrine, and the time of evening, that no one else was around, she pushed her skirt aside a little to reach the painful spot, and groaned a little when she felt the slight swell. That was definitely going to need icing -

A shift in the air made her go still. A small but strong breeze picked up her hair and threw it back out of her face. Forgetting the pain, she straightened, her eyes straining to pick out any movement in the shadows.

She saw him then, standing there in the darkness, his long, flowing hair like pale moonlight, and Kagome felt such a devastating gratefulness that she barely even realized she was running to him until she was caught in two strong, warm arms and hauled up against a tautly muscled chest with a heart that beat inside even faster than hers.

Kagome closed her eyes and just clung, thinking any moment InuYasha was going to gruffly clear his throat, and make her back off, but the moments drew on and on, and he didn't. That was when she remembered how long it had really been for him, and she grinned a little.

"Wow, guess you missed me more then I thought you would," she teased gently, hands clenching around the soft fabric at his waist. He didn't say anything, and she frowned. Speaking of waist...it seemed a lot higher than where it had been before. Not even thinking about it, Kagome let her hands travel up a little. Was his back wider, too? Had he grown?

Drawing back a bit, Kagome felt her cheeks grow hot. She'd never really noticed it before, but her boobs definitely hadn't brushed against him _this_ far down...!

Her hands moved from his waist to his stomach, and she caught the fabric between her fingers and squinted. It was a simple white denim shirt, button-down with an open-collar, and the fabric was worn soft, but expensive for sure. She felt a chuckle escape her. "Seriously? Are you wearing a contemporary shirt? No way! _And_ jeans? Ha!"

The clawed hands supporting her delicate shoulder-blades moved then, and she felt her heart stop as her eyes fully adjusted to the lack of light, and she was able to make out the dark dual-stripes slashing down the forearms just below the rolled-up sleeves of the white shirt.

Kagome was so surprised she pushed against him, and stumbled back and fell on her bottom, knocking the wind out of her lungs. She squeaked, and flinched, and looked up at Sesshomaru-who-wasn't-InuYasha and felt like she might die of humiliation...but then -

"I - you're supposed to be dead!" Kagome blurted tactlessly, then slapped both hands over her mouth.

Sesshomaru fully looked at her, something like resignation in his unusually dull gold eyes that still managed to somehow glow-in-the-dark.

She watched the muscles in his throat as he swallowed and suddenly couldn't draw a breath.

He couldn't blame her for her reaction. He was _supposed_ to be dead.

Sesshomaru hadn't known such pain was possible. The pain he'd felt hundreds of years ago when he'd died – no, even the pain of his reawakening – did not compare to the pain of her absolute rejection now.

From the look of horror on her face, she obviously did not want him.

His heart, which had stopped at the first sight of her scowling over her reddened thigh, exposed by the raised skirt, finally resumed its pounding, but it _bled_, the heart he'd sworn long ago would never bleed for a woman.

Sesshomaru set his jaw against the familiar sensation. Unbearable agony slowly turned to fury as he instinctively attempted to defend his raw emotions. His relief at seeing Kagome after so many centuries persisted, however, and aggravated and confused, he crossed his arms over his chest and forced his gaze away from her. Turning his head away from where she stood was physically impossible, he found, for the way she was positioned from her tumble gave him more of an eyeful of her then he'd had in centuries, so he contented himself with pointedly ignoring her - or attempting to, at least.

Before him, the girl lifted a hand to brush her hair from her face, and then stood rather stiffly. She shifted from one foot to the other, obviously uncomfortable in his presence, especially after she'd just thrown herself at him, and then rejected him.

Sesshomaru lifted an eyebrow, but inside he raged – being so near her after so long was making the skin all over his body prickle. He hadn't felt the like since the one night he'd made her his…

Kagome felt frozen from the icy and utter disdain she felt rolling her way from the demon lord.

She didn't miss the surreptitious rub of his hands over his exposed forearms, though. It seemed like he was subconsciously trying to comfort himself, which was just ridiculous – wait, were those _goosebumps_?

Just then Sesshomaru cut his eyes at her – those gold demon eyes that were sharp enough to draw blood. The pain, and pride, and resentment in that single, frustrated glance almost knocked her over.

Kagome was stunned – what was affecting him so badly that he was showing it visibly? It was so strange to see the emotions just pouring out of him like that - that, and the sight of him in those clothes, with what she finally noticed was the fur pelt he always carried on his shoulder, was so _strange_! And he was huge! He seemed, like, twice as tall and wide as he'd been before, and she knew it was an exaggeration, but heck, it couldn't be by much! Who'd have thought Sesshomaru wasn't done growing back in the day? Even his pelt had two seperate tails, now, it seemed. Wow. He was undeniably hot, alright, but she felt like somebody was going to cue the 'Twilight Zone' theme at any moment. Was this even real?

"A-are you okay, Sesshomaru-sama?"

He started at her words, and then clenched his fists and dropped his hands from his arms. He took a silent step back from her, and then another.

Kagome's mouth fell open. Was it her? Was _she_ actually giving _him_ goosebumps?

Sesshomaru lifted his chin. This willful brat. She was persisting in staring at him as if he had dared give her an immoral compliment of some kind. The fur of his pelt ruffled in irritation.

"I'm so sorry I threw myself at you like that!" she blabbed, twisting her hands together. "I just – Inuyasha told me before I left that you had died, I didn't know – I mean, I was just so glad to see you! No, no, I mean, I was so glad to see InuYasha, I thought you were InuYasha and…._ohhhhh_," Kagome groaned.

Sesshomaru made no comment. At least she realized was just making this situation worse by trying to explain.

Attempting to distance himself, Sesshomaru reverted to form. "You do not have to explain – this Sesshomaru accepts your apology for your unsolicited contact with his person."

"Wha - ?" Kagome frowned. Was he accusing her of _groping_ him or something? Wait - he was _leaving_!

"Hey!"

The great demon didn't answer.

Her head whirling, Kagome watched Sesshomaru walk away, and knew with a terrible - and wonderful - certainty that everything had been real - including the sneaking suspiscion she'd tried so hard to repress...the fact that she had feelings for Sesshomaru. Impossible, but _deep_ feelings.

Kagome let out a long, heartfelt sigh as she felt the beginnings of a frown-headache coming on.

Life with InuYasha had always been crazy and unpredictable, but who'd have known _this_ would have happened? How could she have fallen in love with his brother? She didn't even know him - and what she did know, it was kinda' hard to like!

InuYasha watched his brother walk off, his graceful stride belied by the fact that his hair was starting to billow around his tall form in what he had come to think of as Sesshomaru's exterminating-demon mode.

It was little wonder, really. After all, the great reunion definitely hadn't gone off at all as he'd - sort-of - planned. Aw, well. Relationships had never been his strong suit.

Casting a quick glance at the openly bewildered Kagome, he leapt down from the roof of the wellhouse and onto the roof of the next outbuilding, and the next, until he caught up to his brother.

Sesshomaru didn't even acknowledge him as he continued to walk/glide his way to the shrine steps.

InuYasha sighed, and then clapped a hand on his brothers shoulder. "Well, I say we give up now, 'cause it looks like you're totally boned, bro."

Sesshomaru slid him a frosty glance filled with bitter offense, but it was the glimpse of barely-hidden insanity in his eyes that made InuYasha swallow and drop his hand. "Just kidding! Okay, so it didn't go so well. Doesn't mean anything! She was just surprised - "

"She was disgusted." Sesshomaru bit-out.

"No way, she was nowhere near disgusted - couldn't you smell it? She _was_ just surprised, is all. You gotta' remember, she thought you were dead, since even before she left."

"You should have revealed yourself first," Sesshomaru said flatly. "She was obviously expecting you. My appearance was only a disappointment."

InuYasha shook his head. He had thought of it, to be honest, but he'd been worried seeing him first might make her have some kind of mother-bird reaction.

"Go and see her."

InuYasha frowned at his brother. He didn't look like he was taking this well.

"Sesshomaru - "

"Tomorrow, InuYasha." Sesshomaru turned, and was gone.

InuYasha caught up with Kagome pretty quickly. He had his doubts about revealing himself, but aside from spying on her at the shrine every so often, he really hadn't talked to her in five-hundred years, and he truly missed her.

After the inevitable hugging and shouting, and fond tugging of his ears, Kagome led him to a stone bench and urged him to sit with her. He commented on her limp, but she blushed and waved it off.

"So? What's happened since I saw you last?" she half-jokingly asked. "It's been a long time for you, huh? You, um...you have had some company over the years, right?"

"There's no one, Kagome," InuYasha said, with a wry smile at her attempts to ask if he had someone.

Turning bright red, Kagome gave a little laugh, waving her hands. "Oh, I, um, you know, just being curious!" She laughed nervously again and then went abruptly silent. She looked at him closely.

"Wait. You've been alone all this time, InuYasha?"

InuYasha wanted to hug her again. "No, I haven't been alone." He tilted his head back on his shoulders and looked up into the night sky. "Why, at last count, I think I've been godfather or guardian to about a hundred of Miroku and Sango's offspring."

Kagome's jaw dropped.

InuYasha laughed at the look on her face. "Not all at once, dummy. They only had seven kids."

"S-seven?" Kagome choked.

"Yeah, and then their kids had kids, and their kids had kids, and so on. You know," he frowned, "I mighta' been wrong about that number..."

"Heh," Kagome said with a weak smile. She couldn't believe Sango had had so many children - but then Miroku had always seemed the amorous type. She supposed it wasn't all that unusual back in the day to have that many children, what with all the dangers lurking around, like fire and disease, and war...

"Did they - were they happy? They didn't...they didn't die too early, did they?" she asked with dread.

InuYasha snorted. "Are you kiddin'? A week after you left, Kohaku stumbled into the village, hurt, but alive. Sango was freakin' over the moon! As for dying, Miroku was the last to go, not long after Sango, and that old bastard was still chasing around demons 'till the end. He passed one night in his sleep, surrounded by more snot-nosed grandchildren than any sane man could possibly want."

Kagome laughed, the thought of a white-haired Miroku still banishing demons soothing the hurt she felt at her friends' deaths.

She didn't realize she'd said anything out-loud until InuYasha snorted next to her. "White-haired? He didn't _have_ any hair by then!"

Covering her mouth with her hand, Kagome laughed so hard she thought she might cry.

"Oh, no! Didn't it bother him? I can't even imagine!Poor Miroku"

InuYasha shook his head. "Nah, not really. He and Sango always said they never felt their age because I was around. I never changed, so I guess they didn't either - not inwardly, anyway."

"I'm so glad to hear that, and about Kohaku living - and I'm so glad _you're _here, InuYasha." Kagome said, relieved.

Grinning, InuYasha shocked her by reaching out to take her hand in his. "What, you weren't glad to see Sesshomaru was still hanging around, too?"

Kagome sighed, feeling uncomfortable. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. It might have been centuries for InuYasha, but for her it had only been a few minutes - and she definitely hadn't had the time to work out her strange dreams and feelings about his older brother. _Awkward_!

"Wow. Talk about a shock! I thought I was seeing a ghost, at first!" she exclaimed, trying to blow it off.

InuYasha suddenly looked troubled. "Well...ya' ain't that far off," he mumbled, raising one hand to scratch the back of his neck. "To tell ya' the truth...I really dunno' how he made it _this_ long - "

Kagome frowned, trying to hear him properly. "What? Well, it was strange to see him alive. I mean, I felt so sad when you told me he was dead - and then, _bam_, there he was! It was a relief to see he was okay, I guess, but it was also kinda' scary! How did he survive?"

"Well, he kinda' _didn't _- " InuYasha bit his tongue.

"Oh, Kami-sama!" Kagome's free hand flew up to cover her face. "You mean he came back from the dead? How? Is he a _zombie_? Sorry, but, ew!"

InuYasha winced, knowing his brother was still lingering somewhere nearby and listening to all this. He looked down at Kagome's warm little hand in his and squeezed it. "Um...Kagome? We really hafta' _talk_."

"I know! You still have to tell me about old Kaede, and Shippou! Oh, and Kouga - "

"Yeah, yeah, and there's a lot to tell, too, but..."

"But what?" Kagome looked at him suspisciously. "Oh, no...don't tell me Naraku is back, and he followed me to the present, and he's still after the shikon jewel!"

InuYasha drew back a little, ears twitching in surprise. "Uh, no. He's dead, remember?" _'Does she _want_ Naraku to be back?'_

Kagome scowled and pulled her hand out of his. She stepped back and put her hands on her hips. "Well, so was Sesshomaru, and _he_ came back! Apparently it's so popular _everybody's _doing it!"

InuYasha shook his head. "You got it all wrong. This ain't even about Naraku - well, maybe a little, but - "

She held up her hand. "Stop. I don't want to hear it until I've had something to eat - preferably Mom's oden! I have the feeling that what you're going to tell me is bad news, and I won't listen on an empty stomach, InuYasha!"

"Kagome - " InuYasha held back, worried about Sesshomaru's current state-of-mind. The poor bastard had already waited five-hundred years, he didn't know what would happen if he had to wait much more -

"Forget it, let's go!" Grabbing his hand, and her bag in the other, she marched toward the house, dragging the protesting hanyou behind her all the way.

InuYasha let her pull him along, but his mind was all tangled up. How could he fix things between them when he also had the responsibility of Kagome's safety on his shoulders? When Sesshomaru himself was still so damaged? How did he explain it all, to Kagome, about Demon's Night, everything, especially without her sitting him into a crater!

Allowing himself to enter the house behind her, and hearing the delighted yell of her little brother at the sight of them, InuYasha attempted to smile a greeting, but his heart was heavy with five-hundred years of indecison and worry. He had to laugh, though - since when had _he_ become the responsible one in this weird relationship?

To be continued

A/N: Sorry, guys, not much to say. I do apologize for the obscenely-lengthy wait between chapters. I don't really have much of an excuse besides that I had a hard time getting lost in the fic like usual. I do have most of this finished, but filling in the blanks is taking longer than I thought. I hope you'll stick around to see the end. Thanks everyone!P.S. This chapter's title is from an awesome song called "Follow Me" by Holly Brook. Give it a listen!


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